Pressure and angle of incidence effects in reactive planar magnetron sputtered ZnO layers

Abstract

ZnO films have been prepared by rf sputtering a Zn target in a planar magnetron system with controlled Ar/O2 gas mixtures. The films were deposited on unheated glass substrates which were either stationary in front of the target or in constant motion. Both the system pressure and plasma impedance changed when an oxide layer formed on the target surface. This occurred at an oxygen flow rate which increased almost linearly with rf power; at 500 W, the required flow rate was 9 ml/min and the pressure increased from 0.1 to 1.2 Pa due to the reduced oxygen gettering. High resistance ZnO films were deposited at oxygen flow rates above this threshold value. The target self-bias voltage increased by 30 V at this value; it is affected by both the system pressure and the power. The deposition rate increased linearly with power at approximately 0.03 (μm/min)/(W/cm2) which appears to be typical of sputtering from a ZnO layer or target. For continuous substrate motion, the average rate was approximately 7% of this value. All the films were polycrystalline ZnO with a preferred orientation, the c axis of the hexagonal structure being within a small angle of the substrate normal; this orientation was improved by motion of the substrate past the target. Films deposited at pressures of approximately 0.4 Pa had a large internal stress, as revealed both by substrate bending and x-ray measurements. Increasing the pressure to 4.7 Pa decreased the stress by an order of magnitude. SEM analysis showed that this was associated with the development of a columnar structure. The refractive indices obtained from guided wave measurements were 1.940±0.006 and 1.962±0.003, which correspond to 97% of the single crystal values. The resistivity measured normal to the film plane was greater than 107Ω cm. The changes in film stress and structure are similar to effects in metal films. The electromechanical coupling coefficients obtained from SAW measurements are approximately half the best reported value.