Aluminum doped zinc oxide thin films deposited by magnetron plasma sputtering are essential for various optoelectronic applications. So far, the oxygen negative ions and the atomic oxygen are regarded as responsible for the poor spatial uniformity of thin film resistivity. While various methods are available for thin film characterization, understanding the growth mechanism requires spatial-resolved measurements of plasma parameters. This work uses a dual thermal-electrostatic probe that is able to reveal the spatial distribution of plasma density, electron temperature and plasma potential. The results exhibit a parabolic profile for plasma density and flat profiles for electron temperature and plasma potential, with no correlation with the strong distribution of thin film resistivity that mirrors the erosion track on the target surface.

通过磁控管等离子体溅射沉积的铝掺杂氧化锌薄膜对于各种光电应用是必不可少的。迄今为止，氧负离子和原子氧被认为是造成薄膜电阻率空间均匀性差的原因。虽然有多种方法可用于薄膜表征，但了解生长机制需要对等离子体参数进行空间分辨测量。这项工作使用双热静电探针，能够揭示等离子体密度、电子温度和等离子体电位的空间分布。结果显示出等离子体密度的抛物线轮廓和电子温度和等离子体电位的平坦轮廓，与反映目标表面侵蚀轨迹的薄膜电阻率的强分布没有相关性。