The optical and electrical properties of ZnO:Zr films

Zirconium doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Zr) films at different Zr doping concentrations were deposited by radio frequency (RF) reactive magnetron sputtering. The effect of Zr contents on the crystalline structure, optical and electrical properties of the as-deposited ZnO:Zr films were systematically investigated. The results showed that ZnO:Zr film for 0.51 at% had a stronger preferred orientation toward the c-axis and a better crystallinity which were be good for UV photosensitivity. The lowest resistivity of 31.8 Ω cm was obtained for 0.51 at% Zr doped ZnO film. The UV photosensitivity showed that photodetectors based on ZnO:Zr film for 0.51 at% had very fast response and a higher photocurrent under UV illumination, which was attributed to the release of trapped electrons from surface defects or adsorbed oxygen. The photosensitivity mechanism of ZnO:Zr films has been also discussed in present paper.