Low-temperature curing of aluminum-doped zinc oxide films assisted by ultraviolet exposure

In this study, aluminum-doped zinc oxide films were prepared by a sol–gel method, followed by thermal curing at 200–500 °C. Prior ultraviolet exposure resulted in the subsequent curing temperature required to produce films with obvious crystallinity being successfully lowered to 200 °C because of the early dissociation of diethanolamine ligands in the gel precursor. The crystalline films were constructed of nanosized grains without a preferred orientation. The grain size increased from 9 to 19 nm with curing temperature.