Copyright © 2013 Yanli Liu et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

ZnO-based transparent conductive thin films have attracted much attention as a promising substitute material to the currently used indium-tin-oxide thin films in transparent electrode applications. However, the detailed function of the dopants, acting on the electrical and optical properties of ZnO-based transparent conductive thin films, is not clear yet, which has limited the development and practical applications of ZnO transparent conductive thin films. Growth conditions such as substrate type, growth temperature, and ambient atmosphere all play important roles in structural, electrical, and optical properties of films. This paper takes a panoramic view on properties of ZnO thin films and reviews the very recent works on new, efficient, low-temperature, and high-speed deposition technologies. In addition, we highlighted the methods of producing ZnO-based transparent conductive film on flexible substrate, one of the most promising and rapidly emerging research areas. As optimum-processing-parameter conditions are being obtained and their influencing mechanism is becoming clear, we can see that there will be a promising future for ZnO-based transparent conductive films.