Room Temperature Sputtered Aluminum-Doped ZnO Thin Film Transparent Electrode for Application in Solar Cells and for Low-Band-Gap Optoelectronic Devices.

Aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) is a popular, low-cost, nontoxic material that finds application as a transparent conducting electrode in photonic, sensing, and photovoltaic devices. We report the AZO thin films with a high figure of merit on large-area glass substrates by direct current magnetron sputtering without any intentional substrate heating. Furthermore, a simple thermal post-treatment to improve the transmittance of AZO thin film in the infrared region for its application in low-band-gap devices is presented.

Morphological variations in cadmium sulfide nanocrystals without phase transformation.

A very novel phenomenon of morphological variations of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanorods under the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) beam was observed without structural phase transformation. Environmentally stable and highly crystalline CdS nanorods have been obtained via a chemical bath method. The energy of the TEM beam is believed to have a significant influence on CdS nanorods and may melt and transform them into smaller nanowires.