High quality ZnO films deposited by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering using layer by layer growth method

Abstract

Three-layered ZnO films were deposited on Si substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering using layer by layer growth method. The Raman scattering confocal analysis confirms that ZnO film quality is improving at increasing the number of ZnO layers at film deposition. Applied method of deposition was used to realize homoepitaxial growth of ZnO films on c-Al 2O 3, Si, SiN x /Si, glass and ITO/glass substrates. In order to improve the film quality we increased the number of deposition stages up to 5. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmittance measurements were used to testify the quality of grown five-layered ZnO films. XRD results showed that all five-layered ZnO films have (002) texture. The second order diffraction peak (004) on XRD spectra additionally testifies to the high quality of all five-layered ZnO films. SEM results demonstrated that no defects such as cracks and dislocations caused by interruption of deposition ZnO films were observed. Transmittance measurement results showed that ZnO films deposited on transparent substrates have abrupt absorption edge and high optical transmission in the visible region of the spectrum.