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Three types of primer layers, including polyurethane (PU), acrylic, and silicone coatings, were developed and deposited on the poly(methylmethacrylate) (PMMA) substrates. Amorphous transparent indium zinc oxide (IZO) films deposited by direct current magnetron sputtering at room temperature on primer-treated and untreated PMMA substrates were investigated ex situ in terms of surface morphology, adhesion, nanoindentation and electrical properties. AFM images show that the microstructure of IZO films was determined by the morphology of the primer layers. IZO films deposited on silicone and acrylic-treated PMMA substrates presented the least surface roughness, which proved that the silicone and acrylic primer layers were more effective to get a dense surface. Nano-scratch tests indicated that the adhesion of IZO films deposited on substrate treated by silicone-based primer layers was superior to that on PU-treated and untreated substrate, which can be attributed to the better mechanical matches of the IZO/primer/PMMA system and the large values of hardness of the silicone primer, which can counterbalance the indentation load and prevent the failure of the films.

Zinc-doped indium oxide (IZO) film, as an important transparent conductive oxide, has attracted increasing attention in various scientific and engineering areas. In the present work, discharge-voltage and reactive-oxygen controlled IZO films were grown by magnetron sputtering and studied systematically. The microstructure, element distribution and chemical bonding of IZO films were investigated by X-Ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscope (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (EDX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The optical and electrical properties of IZO films were studied by controlled oxygen and discharge voltage. The typical microstructure of IZO films with optimal optical and electric properties has been characterized. High discharge voltage and matched oxygen vacancies could promote the low resistivity of IZO films, which could be determined by the electronic concentration and mobility.

ZnO:Al films were prepared by magnetron sputtering at room temperature. During the growth process, H radicals produced by radio frequency power sources were in situ introduced into ZnO:Al films. By injecting H radicals, the content of Al in ZnO:Al films increased from 3.4 at. % to 6.1 at. %, which could be ascribed to the reaction between H radicals and ZnO as well as the resputtering of the Zn element. Surface morphologies of ZnO:Al films were tuned from smooth shape to sunflower seed-like. Furthermore, ZnO:Al films without injecting H radicals showed highly c-axis preferential orientation and then nearly became amorphous with the addition of H radicals, which corresponds to the results of Raman spectra. The grain boundary potentials decreased due to the removal of oxygen at grain boundaries and an amount of Vo was produced, which was proved by Raman and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy results. The optimal resistivity of as-grown ZnO:Al films co-doped with H radicals was 1.5 × 10−3 Ω cm at an H2 ratio of 2.3%. The variation of the carrier concentration for annealed ZnO:Al films at different H2 ratios supported the existence of H interstitials and Vo. The optical bandgap varied from 3.44 eV to 3.71 eV with increasing H radicals.