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Growth Mechanism of Preferred Crystallite Orientation in Transparent Conducting ZnO:In Thin Films
Author(s) -
Wang Mingsong,
Jiang Lingxia,
Wang Yulan,
Kim Eui Jung,
Hahn Sung Hong
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the american ceramic society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.9
H-Index - 196
eISSN - 1551-2916
pISSN - 0002-7820
DOI - 10.1111/jace.13742
Subject(s) - crystallite , materials science , thin film , x ray photoelectron spectroscopy , annealing (glass) , chemical engineering , epitaxy , indium , texture (cosmology) , crystallography , nanotechnology , optoelectronics , composite material , chemistry , metallurgy , computer science , engineering , image (mathematics) , layer (electronics) , artificial intelligence
Texture engineering of thin films with controlled crystalline orientation is essential in tuning their properties. We have successfully prepared ZnO:In thin films via chemical bath deposition (CBD), with the preferred orientation of the films varying from [002] to [100] and [110] by simply altering the solvent composition. Growth mechanism of the preferred crystallite orientation in ZnO:In thin films have been systematically investigated. It is found that the variation in the preferred orientation in the films obeys the principle of evolutionary selection, that is, the fastest‐growing crystallographic direction determines the preferred orientation of the films. The tunable crystallite orientation indicates no epitaxial relationship has been established between the crystallites and the seeds. XPS analysis reveals the successful incorporation of indium in the ZnO:In thin films and the oxygen desorption upon reductive annealing. CBD, thus, is demonstrated to produce transparent conductive oxide thin films with tunable textures.