Korean Journal of Materials Research ISSN:1225-0562(Print) 2287-7258(Online) 한국재료학회지

AZO/Cu/AZO thin films were deposited on glass by RF magnetron sputtering. The specimens showed the preferred orientation of (0002) AZO and (111) Cu. The Cu crystal sizes increased from about 3.7 nm to about 8.5 nm with increasing Cu thickness, and from about 6.3 nm to about 9.5 nm with increasing heat treatment temperatures. The sizes of AZO crystals were almost independent of the Cu thickness, and increased slightly with heat treatment temperature. The residual stress of AZO after heat treatment also increased compressively from -4.6 GPa to -5.6 GPa with increasing heat treatment temperature. The increase in crystal size resulted from grain growth, and the increase in stress resulted from the decrease in defects that accompanied grain growth, and the thermal stress during cooling from heat treatment temperature to room temperature. From the PL spectra, the decrease in defects during heat treatment resulted in the increased intensity. The electrical resistivities of the 4 nm Cu film were 5.9 × 10^-4 Ω ‧ cm and about 1.0 × 10^-4 Ω ‧ cm for thicker Cu films. The resistivity decreased as the temperature of heat treatment increased. As the Cu thickness increased, an increase in carrier concentration resulted, as the fraction of AZO/Cu/AZO metal film increased. And the increase in carrier concentration with increasing heat treatment temperature might result from the diffusion of Cu ions into AZO. Transmittance decreased with increasing Cu thicknesses, and reached a maximum near the 500 nm wavelength after being heat treated at 200 °C.