Nd:YVO4 Laser Direct Patterning of Aluminum-Doped Zinc Oxide Films Sputtered Under Different Process Conditions

To examine the application of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) to photovoltaic devices, a study on the direct ablation of AZO deposited at different pulsed-DC sputtering powers has been performed with a Q-switched diode-pumped neodymium-doped yttrium vanadate (Nd:YVO4, lambda = 1064 nm) laser. From the laser-ablated results, it was possible to obtain a lower ablation threshold and more easily etched patterns on AZO deposited at 1 kW than on AZO deposited at 3 kW. The different ablation results show that the heating and subsequent thermal effects by Nd:YVO4 laser with a wavelength of 1064 nm are influenced by the atomic percentage of Zn and Al, the crystallinity, and the grain size of AZO films caused by the sputtering power.