Biaxial stress and optoelectronic properties of Al-doped ZnO thin films deposited on flexible substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering.

Transparent conductive Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films were deposited on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polycarbonate (PC) substrates using radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. The biaxial stress was measured with a double beam shadow moiré interferometer, and x-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to investigate the crystal orientation of ZnO. The substrate temperature was varied from room temperature to 150°C in steps of 25°C. The experimental results showed that the residual and shearing stresses increased with the increase in substrate temperature. The residual stress can be separated into principle and shearing stresses by Mohr's circle rule, and the shearing stress (tensile stress) was different from the compressive stress of the residual stress. However, the optimal substrate temperatures for PET and PC were 75°C and 100°C, and the shearing stresses were 424.82 and 543.68 MPa, respectively. AZO/PET and AZO/PC thin films cracked at substrate temperatures of 75°C and 100°C, respectively. AZO/PET thin film at a substrate temperature of 100°C had a resistivity low to the order of 10  Ω-cm.