Formation of ZnO luminescent films on SiN films for light source of high-resolution optical microscope

Abstract

We fabricated ZnO/SiN films for use as a light source of a high-resolution optical microscope and characterized the properties of the films, and demonstrated images obtained with the microscope using the fabricated ZnO/SiN films. A 100-nm-thick ZnO film deposited on a SiN film showed a much higher CL intensity than the SiN film, and it was enhanced by high-temperature annealing of the ZnO film. Electron beam excitation assisted optical microscope images of gold particles of 200 nm diameter taken using the ZnO/SiN film and SiN indicated that the ZnO/SiN films can provide a higher signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio and a higher frame rate than the SiN film. It was shown that the dynamic observation of living cells becomes possible using the high-resolution optical microscope with a bright light source. Moreover, this fact promises that such optical microscope can contribute to progress in the medical and biological fields.