Vol. 36, No.

3 Journal of Semiconductors March 2015

A comparison between different ohmic contacts for ZnO thin films

Shadia J. Ikhmayies1; Ž , Naseem M. Abu El-Haija2 , and Riyad N. Ahmad-Bitar2
1 Al Isra University, Faculty of Information Technology, Department of Basic Sciences-Physics, Amman 11622, Jordan
2 Physics Department, Faculty of Science, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan

Abstract: There are several metals that form ohmic contacts for ZnO thin films, such as copper, aluminum and
silver. The aim of this work is to make a comparison between these ohmic contacts. To achieve this purpose,
polycrystalline ZnO thin films were prepared by the spray pyrolysis technique, and characterized by the I –V
measurements at room temperature. Two strips of each metal were thermally evaporated on the surface of the film
and measurements were first recorded in the dark and room light, then in the dark before and after annealing for Al,
which was found to be the best in the set. Films with aluminum contacts gave the smallest resistivity, best ohmicity
and they are slightly affected by light as required. On the other hand, copper was found to be the worst, and films
with copper contacts gave the largest resistivity, worst ohmicity and they are the most affected by light. Annealing
improved the aluminum contacts due to alloying and doping.

Key words: transparent conducting oxide; ohmic contacts; annealing; solar cells
DOI: 10.1088/1674-4926/36/3/033005 EEACC: 2570

1. Introduction
Transparent conducting oxides have attracted much atten-
tion in the growing market of flat panel displays and thin film
solar cellsŒ1 . Zinc oxide (ZnO) is considered a promising ma-
terial for a variety of electronic and optoelectronic applications,
including blue and UV solid-state lighting devicesŒ2 . ZnO is a
kind of non toxicŒ3; 4 , low costŒ5 and abundantŒ3; 6 material.
With a wide direct bandgap of 3.37 eVŒ5; 7 it shows an excel-
lent transparency for the entire visible spectrumŒ6 . In addition,
ZnO devices are thermally stableŒ3 , and do not suffer from dis-
location degradation during operationŒ8 . It was found that ZnO
thin films had a multitude of immensely important applications
in electronic and optoelectronic devices such as transparent
conductors, solar cell windows, gas sensors, surface acoustic
wave (SAW) devices, and heat mirrors etcŒ3 . ZnO thin films
can be prepared by different methods such as chemical solution
deposition (CSD)Œ9 , thermal evaporationŒ10 , DC magnetron
sputteringŒ11 , spin coatingŒ12 , and the spray pyrolysis tech-
nique (SP)Œ13 15 . The spray pyrolysis used in this paper is
a simple and low cost technique, which can intentionally and
simply add the dopant into the precursor solution.
The electrical conductivity of ZnO is controlled by in-
trinsic defects, i.e., oxygen vacancies and/or zinc interstitials,
which act as n-type donorsŒ1 . It can be doped both by n- and
p-typeŒ9 . To get n-type ZnO, doping can be done with group
III elements such as B, Al, Ga, or In. In annealing experiments
up to 400 ıC, the conduction due to intrinsic defects is ther-
mally unstable, whereas a better thermal stability is observed
on layers doped extrinsically by indium or aluminumŒ1 .
Measurements of the electrical properties of a semiconduc-
tor or an insulator are strongly affected by the contacts used.
Hence, it is very important for choosing the suitable mate-
rial and geometry of the contacts before measurements. The
linear current–voltage characteristic, particularly at low volt-
ages, is a criterion for the perfection of the contactsŒ13; 15; 16 .
Ohmic contact resistance is strongly dependent on doping con-
centration because the tunneling process is more dominant at
high doping levelsŒ17 . The fabrication of ohmic contacts fre-
quently includes a high temperature step, so that the deposited
metals can either alloy with the semiconductor, or the high-
temperature anneals reduce the unintentional barrier at the in-
terfaceŒ13; 15; 18 .
The literature reveals that different types of contacts were
used for ZnO. Some researchers used a single element to
form ohmic contacts, such as goldŒ1; 6; 19 , aluminumŒ9; 20 , in-
diumŒ11 , silverŒ3; 21 and TiŒ9 . Among them, Ti was found to
be a poor ohmic contact. Others used alloys for the same pur-
pose, for example Al/Ti/AuŒ22; 23 , and/or Ti/AuŒ20 contacts,
which have the lowest contact resistivity between Ti, Al and
Ti–Au.
Aluminum, silver and copper are used to make the contacts
of ZnO thin films in this paper, where all of them are found
to be ohmic. Our aim is to make a comparison between these
ohmic contacts for ZnO thin films, and to find the best one in
the electrical properties. The importance of this study lies in
the use of ZnO as a transparent conducting oxide or a window
material in heterojunction solar cells. For this purpose, it is im-
portant to investigate the electrical properties of this material,
and good contacts are necessary for getting confidential results.
2. Materials and methods
To produce ZnO thin films, a precursor solution is prepared
by using 7.61  10 3 mole of ZnCl2 , dissolved in 300 mL of
distilled water. To prevent the formation of Zn(OH)2 , the PH
of the solution was made equal to 3 by adding HCl. This so-
lution was intermittently sprayed by using a home-made spray
pyrolysis apparatus that was described in Reference [14]. The
spraying was done vertically through a PVC nozzle on ordi-

† Corresponding author. Email: shadia_ikhmayies@yahoo.com

Received 10 July 2014, revised manuscript received 9 October 2014 © 2015 Chinese Institute of Electronics

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J. Semicond. 2015, 36(3) Shadia J. Ikhmayies et al.

Figure 2. X-ray diffractogram of one of the as-deposited ZnO thin

films.

Figure 1. SEM micrographs of one of the as-deposited ZnO thin

filmsŒ24 .

nary glass substrates placed on a heating block. The dimen-

sions of the substrates are 2.5  6  0.1 cm3 and the substrate
temperature is Ts D 450 ıC. Prior to deposition, the glass slides
were cleaned by dipping in distilled water then by an ultrasonic
cleaner, then soaked in methanol for 20–30 min, again soaked
in distilled water and finally polished with lens papers. Nitro-
gen N2 was used as the carrier gas. The solution spray rate was
in the range of 3–5 mL/min. The optimum carrier gas pressure
for this rate of solution flow was around 5 kg/cm3 . The nozzle
to substrate distance was adjusted to get the largest uniform
area about 30 cm in diameter.
The I –V measurements are taken in the dark and in room
light at room temperature by a system that consists of a Keith-
ley 2400 Source Meter capable of measuring 10 11 A. Alu-
minum, silver, and copper are used as the contact materials for
the films. Two strips of each of these metals are deposited on
the surface of the film by thermal evaporation. The strips are of
1 cm length, 2 mm width, with a separation of 3 mm. A num-
ber of samples were annealed in nitrogen ambient at 250 ıC
for 45 min after depositing the contacts on the surfaces of the
films.
The transmittance of the films was measured in the wave-
length range  D 290–1100 nm by using a double beam Shi-
madzu UV 1601 (PC) spectrophotometer with respect to a
piece of glass similar to the substrates. The minima and max-
ima in the transmittance curves are used to estimate the film Figure 3. I –V plots and linear fits for ZnO thin films with different
thickness, where films of thickness between 300 and 600 nm contacts. (a) In the dark. (b) In room light.
are produced. The morphology of the films is observed with
a scanning electron microscope (SEM) (LEITZ-AMR 1000A)
The structure is investigated with XRD, and Figure 2 de-
and their structure is measured with an X-ray diffraction (XRD)
picts the diffractogram of a film, where the figure shows a
(Philips PW1840) compact X-ray diffractometer system by us-
hexagonal (wurtzite) structure. The strong narrow peak cor-
ing Cu K˛ ( D 1.5405 Å). The measurements are recorded at
responds to the reflection from the (002) plane, and it con-
a diffraction angle 2 in the range of 2ı – 81ı .
firms that the preferred growth direction is along the c-axis per-
pendicular to the substrate. In addition, there are five weaker
3. Results and discussion diffraction peaks, which correspond to (100), (101), (102),
(103) and (004), respectively. The Bragg equation (2d sin
The set of films under study are all deposited from the D n/ was used to calculate interplanar distance d , where 
same precursor solution with the same deposition parameters. is Bragg’s angle, n is the order which equals to 1, and  D
The morphology of the films is explored by SEM observa- 1.5405 Å is the wavelength of the incident X-ray (Cu K˛ line).
tions, where Figure 1 displays the SEM image for one of the The interplanar distance d was found to be 0.261 nm, and the
as-deposited films. As shown in Figure 1, the film appears to crystal lattice constant c was also calculated and found to be
be polycrystalline and fully covered with material. 0.522 nm. The grain size was estimated from the Scherrer for-

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J. Semicond. 2015, 36(3) Shadia J. Ikhmayies et al.

Table 1. Fit parameters of the linear fits shown in Figure 3.

Contact Status Film thickness (nm) Slope (A/V) SD R2 F
Ag Dark 500 8.70  10 7 1.97  10 8 0.99884 8579
Light 8.83  10 7 2.14  10 8 0.99867 7470
Cu Dark 500 1.67  10 8 2.54  10 10 0.99947 18946
Light 1.74  10 8 1.55  10 10 0.99982 55730
Al Dark 500 3.71  10 6 8.6  10 9 0.99999 817847
Light 3.71  10 6 6.13  10 9 0.99999 1.61  106

Table 2. The values of resistance, resistivity and the ratio of the dark to the light resistivity for ZnO thin films with different contacts.
Contact Status Film thickness (nm) R (/  (
cm) dark /light
Ag Dark 500 1149305.1 153.2 1.0146
Light 1132619.6 151.0
Cu Dark 500 60047076.9 8006.3 1.0465
Light 57379918.2 7650.7
Al Dark 500 269813.0 36.0 1.0028
Light 269618.1 35.9

mula and the line (002) in the XRD diffractogram.
 affinity of ZnO, which is 4.1 eVŒ25 and the work functions of
dD ; (1)
D cos 
where d is the grain size,  is the X-ray wavelength defined
before, D is the angular line width of the half-maximum inten-
sity, and  is the Bragg angle defined before. The grain size
calculated from Equation (1) is about 30 nm, which means that
the particulates in the SEM image are aggregates, which con-
sist of smaller crystallites.
The three different contacts: Al, Ag and Cu are deposited
on the surfaces of the films by thermal evaporation-one type
of contact on each film. Films with Al contacts are annealed
in a nitrogen atmosphere for 45 min after depositing the con-
tacts. Some of the criteria for the perfection of the contacts are
linear current–voltage characteristics particularly at low volt-
ages, and the absence of a photovoltaic effectŒ16 . The three
aforementioned contacts are examined for achieving these cri-
teria. For this purpose, the I –V measurements are recorded in
the forward and reverse directions at room temperature in the
dark and room light, and displayed in Figure 3. As shown in
the figure, the relations are linear, which means that the three
materials form ohmic contacts for ZnO.
Linear fits which pass through the origin are performed,
and the fit parameters R2 , standard deviation SD and F are
listed in Table 1. The resistance R is calculated from the slope
of each straight line and used to find the resistivity  by using
the relation R D L=A, where L is the length in the direction
of the current and A is the cross-sectional area perpendicular
to the current. The estimated values of R and  are listed in
Table 2.
From Table 1 first, both in the dark and in room light, the
highest slope is obtained by using Al contacts, while the lowest
one by using Cu contacts. Second, the smallest standard devia-
tion (SD) is got with Cu contacts, while the largest SD with Ag
contacts. Third, in the dark and in room light, the best linear-
ity, which is represented by the value of R2 is for Al contacts,
which means that these contacts show the best ohmicity in the
set under study. The largest F value is for Al contacts and the
smallest one is for Ag contacts. Hence the best ohmic contacts
from the set under study are Al contacts. These results can be
explained in the light of the comparison between the electron
these contact materials, which are 4.74, 4.24, and 4.94 eV for
Ag, Al and Cu respectivelyŒ26 . So, the closest work function
to the electron affinity of ZnO is Al, while the farthest one is
Cu. Hence the best ohmicity is Al, and the worst one is Cu, al-
though all of them produced ohmic contacts because the values
of the work functions are comparable to the electron affinity of
ZnO.
From Table 2, the smallest resistance and resistivity are
obtained with Al contacts, while the largest ones are with Cu
contacts both in the dark and room light. As mentioned before,
these results can be explained in terms of the electron affinity of
ZnO and the work functions of the metals used as contacts. The
work function of Al which equals 4.24 eVŒ26 is the closest to
the electron affinity of ZnO which is 4.1 eVŒ25 , while the work
function of Cu, which is 4.94 eVŒ26 , is the farthest.
The ratios of the dark resistivity dark to the light resistiv-
ity light are shown in Table 2. The Cu contacts are the most af-
fected by light (highest dark /light/ , then the Ag contacts. These
results can be interpreted in terms of the decrease in the barrier
height caused by light. Al contacts are nearly unaffected by
light, or approximately the photovoltaic effect on them is ab-
sent, which confirms that they are the best ohmic contacts in
the set under study.
Annealing is known to improve the ohmic behavior of the
contacts. Figure 4 displays the I –V plots for another two films
with different thicknesses and Al contacts recorded in the dark
before and after annealing. The relations are linear as before,
and so linear fits that pass through the origin are performed.
The fit parameters are listed in Table 3, and the estimated val-
ues of the resistance and resistivity and the ratios of the dark
resistivity to the light resistivity are listed in Table 4. For both
films there is a decrease in the resistivity after annealing. This is
probably because more Al diffusion into the ZnO film occurs at
high temperatures, which results in doping the region under the
contacts and the formation of an alloy, and then a lower contact
resistance. Comparing the resistivities of the thicker and thin-
ner films after annealing, it is found that the resistivity of the

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J. Semicond. 2015, 36(3) Shadia J. Ikhmayies et al.

Table 3. Fit parameters of the linear fits shown in Figure 4.

Status Film thickness (nm) Slope (A/V) SD R2 F
As-deposited 600 9.26  10 7 3.64  10 8 0.99986 260825
Annealed 1.00  10 6 3.03  10 8 0.99988 433958
As-deposited 370 1.40  10 6 2.62  10 8 0.99997 1.27  106
Annealed 3.41  10 6 2.44  10 7 0.99960 84547

Table 4. The values of resistance, resistivity and the ratio of the as-deposited as to the annealed resistivity ann for ZnO thin films with Al
contacts in the dark.
Status Film thickness (nm) R (/  (
cm) as /ann
As-deposited 600 1079830.8 144.0 1.0803
Annealed 999620.1 133.3
As-deposited 370 715701.8 95.4 2.4399
Annealed 292895.2 39.1

into the film. So, both of these factors contribute to decreasing

the resistivity.

4. Conclusions
Polycrystalline ZnO thin films were prepared by the spray
pyrolysis technique on glass substrates. A comparison between
three ohmic contacts for ZnO thin films was performed by the
use of the I –V characterization. These contacts are aluminum,
copper and silver. It is found that aluminum contacts are the
best, because they resulted in the smallest resistivity, they con-
tributed in doping through Al diffusion into the film, and they
are less affected by light as required. Copper contacts are found
to be the worst in the set, because they resulted in the largest
resistivity and smallest ohmicity. Annealing improved the Al
contact through improving the ohmicity, the interdiffusion, and
alloying.

Acknowledgments
We want to thank Sameer Farrash at the University of Jor-
dan for making the contacts by thermal evaporation. We also
thank Marsil Imsais from the geology department in the Uni-
versity of Jordan for the XRD measurements and Mr. Khalil
Tadros from the geology department in the University of Jor-
dan for the SEM images.

Figure 4. The I –V plots and linear fits for two ZnO thin films with
Al-contacts annealed in a nitrogen atmosphere at 250 ıC for 45 min.
(a) Thickness D 600 nm. (b) Thickness D 370 nm.
thicker film is decreased by a factor of about 1.08, while that
of the thinner one is decreased by a factor of about 2.44. Be-
cause grain size increases with film thicknessŒ27; 28 , the grains
of the thicker film are larger, so a slight enlargement with an-
nealing occurs and the decrease in resistivity is mainly due to
the diffusion of aluminum into the film. In the case of the thin-
ner film, the grain size is smaller, so more enlargement of the
grains with annealing occurs, beside the diffusion of aluminum
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