XRD and AFM Studies on Nanostructured Zinc Aluminum Oxide Thin Films Prepared by Multi-Target Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

Zinc Aluminum Oxide (ZAO) thin films have been deposited on glass substrates by DC reactive magnetron co-sputtering at different sputtering powers of Zn varied from 85 to 125 W. X-ray diffraction patterns exhibits ZAO thin films had a diffraction peak corresponding to (0 0 2) preferred orientation with c-axis perpendicular to the substrate surface. X-ray diffraction patterns have been used to determine the structural parameters such as crystallite size, stress, strain and lattice constants. The image processing of atomic force microscopy data provides quantitative information on nanostructured ZAO thin films. Statistics on groups of particles are measured through image analysis and data processing includes particle counts, particle size distribution, surface area distribution and volume distribution. The average roughness, maximum peak to valley height, root mean square roughness, ten-point mean height roughness, surface skewness and surface kurtosis parameters are used to analyze the surface topography of ZAO films.