Abstract
The influence of deposition mode of the ZnO underlayer on the thermal stability of 20nm thick Ag films in the ZnO/Ag/SiN multilayer stacks were investigated. ZnO films were deposited by reactive sputtering of Zn target under different O2 flows corresponding to both transition and oxide modes. The films were characterized by sheet resistance, X-ray diffraction and SEM imaging before and after thermal annealing at 350°C, 400°C and 500°C, respectively. The results show that ZnO underlayer improves the thermal stability of the Ag films significantly. The ZnO deposition mode has huge impact on the Ag film on top of it. Compared with ZnO deposited in transition mode, ZnO deposited in oxide mode can induce more crystalline Ag film with stronger (111) preferred orientation, which is more thermally stable. For ZnO deposition in oxide mode, an optimal oxygen flow is identified to result in the most thermally stable Ag layer.
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