In this study, pronounced effects of ion-beam-assistance and substrate temperature were revealed by exploring the physical properties of Al-doped ZnO thin films deposited by the RF magnetron sputtering technique. Herein, two measurable parameters, ion-beam discharge current (0.1 A) and substrate temperature (303-473 K) were adopted to regulate the structural changes in Al-doped ZnO films. Specifically, progressive structural changes were achieved based on the addition of Ar ion-beam during the film growth. From XRD analysis, we observed significant structural changes that provided an improvement in the film growth towards c-axis (002) plane. In addition, FESEM and AFM analyses demonstrated excellent surface features with the assisted Ar ion-beam. As a result of this process, we effectively modulated the binding energy of Zn 2p level. Finally, the structural investigation accurately demonstrated that the dependence of assisted ion-beam and substrate temperature linearly related to the superior visible transmittance and reduced band gap. (C) 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.