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Antimony (Sb) and zinc (Zn) bilayer was sputter-deposited at room temperature with various Zn contents by ion-beam sputtering and transformed into Antimony zinc after post thermal annealed at 573K for 60 min. A power factor of 6.18×10-4 W/mK2 at 473 K has been obtained when the sputtering time of the Zn was 20 minutes. The maximum Seebeck coefficient is 42.0 μVK-1. Composition analysis shows that the compound of SbZn is achieved and the small Seebeck coefficient is due to the deviation of stoichiometric.

CdS thin film was deposited onto glass substrates by the chemical bath deposition. The deposition temperature was maintained at 75 ºC. The crystal structure, surface morphology, optical and electrical properties have investigated employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), spectrophotometer and seeback coefficient measurement, respectively. The XRD reveals CdS thin film grown at 75 ºC has the mixed hexagonal and cubic structure. The optical band gap energy is 2.4 eV. The seeback coefficient is 197.3μV/k at room temperature. The electric resistivity of CdS thin film is in the order of 10000Ω•cm.

N-type Bi2Te3 and p-type Sb2Te3 thermoelectric thin films have been prepared by RF and DC co-sputtering. The Seebeck coefficient of n-type Bi2Te3 and p-type Sb2Te3 thin films is about -122 μVK-1 and 108 μVK-1, the power factor is about 0.82×10-3 Wm-1K-2 and 1.60×10-3 Wm-1K-2. Then, the films have been selected to fabricate the thin film thermoelectric generator. The results show that the open-circuit voltage of 12.2 mV and the output power of 3.32 μW are obtained for a thin film generator with the temperature difference at 60 K.

Al doped ZnO films were prepared by reactive direct current (DC) magnetron sputtering at room temperature. The targets were metallic Al and Zn while the gases were Ar and O2. X‐ray diffraction (XRD) shows that the films are of hexagonal structure and Al is successfully doped into ZnO without secondary phases detected. Raman scattering spectra of the films contain the E1mode of ZnO. Seebeck effect shows that the films are n‐type and four probe instrument shows that the films are very resistive. The high resistivity is due to the compensation of acceptors such as oxygen vacancies and substitutional nitrogen atoms. The acceptors reduce the electron density and increase the work function of ZnO, which therefore weakens the field emission of Al doped ZnO films.

Cu-In-O composite thin films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering with two composite targets. The films were annealed in air at 400 oC for 3 hours and the effect of annealing was investigated. The samples are polycrystalline and contain mainly In2O3 mixed with CuO. Annealing dose not further oxidize the samples, possibly due to the low annealing temperatures. Annealing slightly improves the crystalline quality of the films. Annealing increases the transmittances of almost all the samples by annihilating oxygen vacancies and hence widening the optical band gap. The conductivity of the samples is due to In2O3 but is compensated by CuO inside the films and annealing greatly reduces the conductivity by driving out the oxygen vacancies. The In target partly masked with a Cu plate provides more convenience in adjusting the composition and properties of Cu-In-O films.

Transparent conductive Cu-In-O thin films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering. Two types of targets were used. The first was In target covered with a fan-shaped Cu plate of the same radius and the second was Cu target on which six In grains of 1.5mm was placed with equal distance between each other. The samples were characterized with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV/VIS spectrophotometer, four-probe measurement etc. SEM shows that the surfaces of all the samples are very smooth. EDX shows that the samples contain Cu, In as well as O, and different targets result in different atomic ratios of Cu to In. A diffraction peak related to rhombohedra-centered In2O3 (012) is observed in the XRD spectra of all the samples. For both the two targets, the transmittance decreases with the increase of O2 flow rates. The direct optical band gap of all the samples is also estimated according to the transmittance curve. For both the two targets, different O2 flow rates result in different sheet resistances and conductivities. The target of Cu on In shows more controllability in the composition and properties of Cu-In-O films.

To evaluate the influence of plasma power on the structural, electrical and optical properties of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films, a set of polycrystalline AZO samples under different plasma power were deposited on glass substrates at room temperature. X-ray diffraction technique (XRD), four-point probe measurements and spectrophotometer were used to characterize these films. XRD shows that all AZO films have a hexagonal wurtzite structure with prominent (002) orientation. With the plasma power increasing, the grain size first increases and then decreases. The largest grain size of 23.6 nm in the films is obtained at the plasma power of 123 W. The average optical transmittance of AZO films is over 80% in the visible region. The lowest resistivity of 1.0×10-3Ω•cm is obtained under the plasma power of 220 W.

Antimony and tellurium were deposited on K9 glass via direct current and radio frequency magnetron co-sputtering. Antimony telluride thermoelectric thin films were simultaneously synthesized without post treatment. The influence of the sputtering power of Te and annealing of Sb-Te fabricated by magnetron sputtering were investigated. The maximum Seebeck coefficient of Sb-Te film was 212 μV/K which was obtained at the sputtering power of Sb 4W and Te 60W separately. When annealed at 300 °C, the electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient of the film are 6.67x104 S/m and 119 μV/K. The power factor increased to the highest value of 9.4×10-4 W/mK2 from 4×10-5 W/mK2 after post treatment of the as-deposited film.

ZnO thin films were prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering at room temperature. Two of them were annealed with different modes under vacuum condition. One was annealed with constant temperature of 300ºC ; the other was annealed with temperature rising step by step from room temperature to 300ºC . By comparing the microstructure and optical properties of the as-grown and annealed samples, the effects of different annealing modes on ZnO films performances were revealed. The experiment results investigated that the sample annealed with constant temperature of 300ºC has the high grain size and surface roughness. Both of the two annealing modes could release the intrinsic stresses to some degree. The optical band gap of the samples narrowed after annealing, and the two annealed samples have almost the same band gap. Strong green emissions are observed for all the samples, but the emission intensity decreased of the sample annealed with the temperature rising step by step compared with that of other samples.

ZnO thin films were deposited by DC reactive magnetron sputtering, and the samples were annealed from 100°C to 400°C, respectively. With the help of x-ray diffractmeter (XRD), spectrophotometer, and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy system, the microstructure, intrinsic stress, optical properties, and PL properties were investigated, respectively. The XRD results reveal that all the ZnO films are found to have the hexagonal wurtzite structure with prominent (002) peak. With the annealing temperature increasing, the grain size increased accordingly. All the samples exhibit compressive stress, and the stress value decreasing with annealing temperature increasing. Optical transmittance spectra investigated that all the samples have high transmittance in visible range. With annealing temperature increasing, peak transmittance rising of the sample were observed. The fundamental absorption edge, which associated with band gap of materials, shifting to longer wavelength is observed too. PL results shows that the sample annealed with 300°C have higher intensity emission peak.