Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Applied Surface Science, cilt.741, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
As a favorable transparent conductive oxide (TCO), aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) films have been widely used in optoelectronic applications. Among AZO deposition techniques, magnetron sputtering enables precise control over film characteristics. In this work, we investigated the effect of partial oxygen pressure on the structural, optical, electrical and hydrogen sensing properties of AZO films by varying the O2:Ar gas flow ratios to 0:200 (0%), 30:200 (15%), 50:200 (25%), and 70:200 (35%) sccm. The film thickness decreased gradually from ∼379 nm to ∼227 nm with increasing oxygen partial pressure. XRD analysis confirmed the formation of the hexagonal wurtzite crystal structure in all films, while the average crystallite size decreased from 17 nm (0:200 sccm) to 14 nm (70:200 sccm). On the other hand, micro strain and dislocation density values of the films increased from ∼0.50% to 0.59% and from ∼1.81 x 10-3 nm−2 to 2.47 x 10-3 nm−2, respectively. XPS was employed to study the differences in the surface chemistry of the deposited films. The optical band gap energy estimations exhibited a decline from 3.60 to 3.33 eV with increasing oxygen partial pressure. The temperature-dependent I-V measurements revealed a strong dependence of electrical conductivity on oxygen incorporation. The hydrogen sensing performance of the AZO films was evaluated toward various concentrations (250–10,000 ppm) at 100 °C and 150 °C. The results provide insights into how the oxygen partial pressure during DC sputtering affects the performance of AZO films for optoelectronic uses and conductometric hydrogen sensing.