Pulsed laser deposited transparent and conductive V-doped ZnO thin films

•Transparent and conductive vanadium-doped ZnO (VZO) films were grown by pulsed laser deposition.•The deposited VZO films are of good crystallinity at low doping concentrations.•V doping decreases about an order of magnitude the electrical resistivity of the ZnO films. ZnO and vanadium-doped ZnO (0.7–4.1 at.%) thin films were deposited onto corning glass substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique using a KrF excimer laser (λ = 248 nm). The films were deposited at 500 °C under an oxygen pressure of 1 Pa with a laser fluence of 2 J/cm2. The structural, morphological, optical and electrical properties as a function of the dopant atomic concentration were investigated by means of X-ray diffraction, Scanning Electron Microscopy, spectrophotometry, conductivity and Hall measurements. All the doped and undoped films show a preferential orientation along the c-axis with a deterioration at higher doping levels (>4 at. %). Besides, as the doping amount increases the in-plane stress leads to an increase of the c-axis lattice parameter. The films are transparent within the wavelength range 400–1200 nm. The electrical resistivity of the films drops from 8.2 10−3 to 1.3 10−3 Ω cm with an increase in the dopant concentration up to 0.9 at. % and then rises as the dopant level is increased further.