Effects of the thermal annealing on the thermoelectric properties of Ga-doped ZnO thin films

Abstract

We deposited successfully Ga-doped ZnO (GZO) thin films by using magnetron Dc-sputtering technique, followed by annealing. The effects of the thermal annealing on thermoelectric properties of GZO films were investigated. The obtained results showed that due to annealing, the thermoelectric properties of the GZO films were significantly enhanced: (1) power factor increased with an increase of electron mobility due to high film crystallinity; (2) The figure of merit ZT values of the GZO film annealed at 500 oC (ZT = 0.114) was one order higher the asdeposited GZO film (ZT = 0.012). The room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra depicted various kinds of point defects which controlled thermoelectric properties and both oxygen vacancies VO and zinc interstitial Zni played an important role.