Dual-ion-beam sputter deposition of ZnO films

Abstract

Physical properties of zinc oxide films deposited by dual-ion-beam sputtering are analyzed to point out the performance of this technique for the deposition of this material. The films are deposited by sputtering a zinc oxide target with an argon-ion beam, while a second low-energy beam, the assistance ion beam, impinges directly on the growing films. Results are presented for ZnO films deposited at room temperature with different oxygen/argon ratios in assistance ion beam and different sputtering ion-beam currents. Elemental, structural, and electrical analyses have been performed on films. All the films show the typical crystallographic orientation, with the c axis perpendicular to the substrate. The oxygen percentage in the assistance ion beam plays an important role in controlling the electrical resistivity of the films.

Effects of laser wavelength and fluence on the growth of ZnO thin films by pulsed laser deposition

“…The FWHM value of the (002) XRD reflection line, corrected for the instrumental broadening is found to be only 0.15 ° . Together with an optical transmittance above 85% in the visible region with a sharp cut-off at 380 nm and conductivities of around 100 S. cm -1, these properties are amongst the best results reported so far for ZnO layers prepared by any method [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

“…However, the absence of any structure in the shoulders of the Zn 2p3/2 and Zn2pl/2 XPS peaks recorded for these films indicates that they do not contain, within the XPS resolution limit (< 0.1%), metallic Zn. The binding energies of the Ols and Zn2p3/a and Zn2pl/z peaks, measured with respect to that of C ls situated at 284.6 eV, closely correspond to O and Zn in ZnO [8,20] and confirm our previous Rutherford backscattering measurements which showed that the PLD grown films, regardless of the laser employed, were essentially stoichiometric ZnO [13,14]. Narrow XRD lines and refractive index values around 1.97-2.0 were recorded for all the films grown by the KrF laser at fluences in the 1.5-2.5 J/cm 2 range, when keeping substrate temperatures around 300-350°C and oxygen partial pressures in the low 10 .3 Torr range.…”

“…Many techniques such as sputtering [2,3], chemical vapour deposition [4], sol-gel [5], chemical spraying [6], electron plasma sputtering [7], ion-beam assisted deposition [8] or reactive evapora-tion [9] have been employed for the growth of high-quality c-axis oriented ZnO layers at substrate temperatures as low as possible, usually below 450°C. The pulsed laser deposition (PLD) method, which has been recognised to offer the potential of producing high-quality thin films at relatively low substrate temperatures, was first used for growing ZnO films in 1983 [10,11].…”

Liquid Phase Morphology Control of ZnO Nanowires, Ellipse Particles, Hexagonal Rods, and Particle in Aqueous Solutions

“…ZnO has attracted much attention as varistors [15], piezoelectric devices [16], electroacoustic transducers [17], and highly transparent conducting windows for solar cells, displays [18], vacuum fluorescent displays (VFDs) [19], field emission displays (FEDs) [20], electroluminescent displays (ELDs) [21], UV light-emitting diodes (LEDs), laser diodes [22], and gas sensors [23,24], dye-sensitized solar cells [25][26][27][28][29], and molecular sensors [30].…”

Structural and optical properties of pure and Ag doped ZnO thin films obtained by sol gel spin coating technique

“…ZnO thin films have been prepared by different deposition techniques, such as pulsed laser deposition [9], r.f. sputtering [10], molecular beam epitaxy [11], electron beam evaporation [12], chemical vapor deposition [13] and spray pyrolysis [14].…”