Correlation Between Morphology and Nanomechanical Behavior of ZnO Thin Films

Abstract

Influence of morphology of ZnO films on the mechanical properties at submicron scale was evaluated by nanoindentation to depict its adhesion with the substrate. ZnO films with three different morphologies viz. hexagonal rods, flakes and spheres were subjected to the analyses. The nanomechanical properties were found to be maximum and minimum for spherical and flake-like ZnO films, respectively. It has also been found that the average surface roughness (Ra) has significant influence on the nanomechanical properties.