Structural property of m-plane ZnO epitaxial film grown on LaAlO 3 (1 1 2) substrate

Abstract

The microstructure of m-plane (1 0 1¯ 0) ZnO grown on LaAlO 3 (1 1 2) (LAO (1 1 2)) substrate by pulsed laser deposition method has been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). XRD shows that ZnO grown on LAO(1 1 2) appears to be oriented in pure m-plane. TEM electron diffraction patterns in cross section illustrate that m-plane ZnO is in epitaxy with LAO (1 1 2), and the orientation relationships are determined to be [1 2¯ 1 0] ZnO//[1¯ 1¯ 1] LAO and [0 0 0 1] ZnO//[1¯ 1 0] LAO. Also, TEM shows that most of threading dislocations (TDs) in a-type are mainly distributed as wiggle-like lines. From the observations in plan-view TEM, the densities of TDs and basal stacking faults are approximately estimated to be 5.1×10 10 cm −2 and 4.3×10 5 cm −1, respectively.