The influence of RF power on the electrical properties of sputtered amorphous InGa-Zn-O thin films and devices

The influence of radio frequency（RF） power on the properties of magnetron sputtered amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide（a-IGZO） thin films and the related thin-film transistor（TFT） devices is investigated comprehensively.A series of a-IGZO thin films prepared with magnetron sputtering at various RF powers are examined.The results prove that the deposition rate sensitively depends on RF power.In addition,the carrier concentration increases from 0.91 x 1019 to 2.15 x 1019 cm-3 with the RF power rising from 40 to 80 W,which may account for the corresponding decrease in the resistivity of the a-IGZO thin films.No evident impacts of RF power are observed on the surface roughness,crystalline nature and stoichiometry of the a-IGZO samples.On the other hand,optical transmittance is apparently influenced by RF power where the extracted optical band-gap value increases from 3.48 to 3.56 eV with RF power varying from 40 to 80 W,as is supposed to result from the carrierinduced band-filling effect.The rise in RF power can also affect the performance of a-IGZO TFTs,in particular by increasing the field-effect mobility clearly,which is assumed to be due to the alteration of the extended states in a-IGZO thin films.