Effect of post sputter annealing treatment on nano-structured cadmium zinc oxide thin films

Thin films of cadmium zinc oxide (CdZnO) were deposited on glass substrates by reactive dc magnetron sputtering and post sputter annealed at different temperatures: 350 °C, 400 °C, 450 °C, 500 °C and 550 °C. These films were characterized by glancing angle x-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, photoluminescence, UV–vis–NIR spectroscopy and Hall measurements. The structural results revealed that all these films exhibit hexagonal wurtzite structure with complete c-axis orientation in (002) plane. The transmittance of these films increased with the post sputter annealing treatment and minimum band gap observed for the film that was annealed at 500 °C. The carrier concentration and Hall mobility increased with post sputter annealing, while electrical resistivity decreased with the narrowing optical band gap and increase in the crystallite sizes. •CdZnO is proposes as a TCO material due to its low ρ (3 Ω cm) and high T (90%).•The lowest Eg of 2.75 eV was observed at 500 °C of post annealing temperature.•CdZnO thin films have hexagonal wurtzite structure with the orientation (002).•It shows n-type nature from Hall measurements.