Enhancement in Conductivity and Transmittance of Zinc Oxide Prepared by Chemical Bath Deposition

Highly conductive and transparent zinc oxide thin films were prepared on cleaned Corning Eagle 2000 glass substrates by chemical bath deposition (CBD) using Zn(NO 3 ) 2 and (CH 3 ) 2 NHBH 3 ; the effects of annealing on the structural, electrical and optical properties were investigated. The electrical properties of the film were greatly affected by annealing. Structural characterization was performed by x-ray diffraction and field emission scanning electron micro- scopy. The thin film had a low resistivity of 2.9 × 10 −2 Ω cm, an average transmittance of 81.2%, and a bandgap of 3.23 eV (which is in the visible range) when the film was annealed at 600°C in Ar + H 2 . The results demonstrated that a low-resistivity and high-transmittance zinc oxide film can be prepared by CBD, which makes the process readily applicable for a roll-to-roll process.