The carrier mobility of sputter-deposited Al-doped ZnO transparent-conducting (ZnO:Al) thin films was controlled between 22 and 48 cm(2)/Vs by varying the ZnO: Al seed layer. The statistical distribution of the [001] grain misorientation was characterized from the X-ray diffraction rocking curve in the range from 0.043 (2.5 degrees) to 0.179 rad (10.2 degrees). The grain-boundary energy barriers (E-b) from Seto's model [1] clearly exhibit linear dependence on the grain-boundary misorientation angle (omega) according to the equation E-b = 78 +/- 4 + 173 +/- 32 omega meV. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.