Relation between optical property and crystallinity of ZnO thin films prepared by rf magnetron sputtering

Abstract

ZnO (zinc oxide) thin films have been prepared by using rf magnetron sputtering on a SiO2/Si substrate. The crystallographic properties and optical properties were investigated. It is shown that the ZnO films exhibit strong c-axis orientation. The standard deviation of the c axis was obtained less than 1°. The optical propagation loss was less than 2 dB/cm (TE0 mode) in a 0.6-μm-thick film. To achieve the ZnO films with low light propagation loss, it was found that we must take into account not only c-axis orientation of ZnO films but also the density of ZnO films.