Surface morphology and photoluminescence studies of Sb-doped ZnO layers grown using MOCVD

Abstract

ZnO and ZnO:Sb films were deposited using low pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition on C-and R-oriented sapphire and O-polar ZnO substrates. Surface morphologies were studied using scanning electron microscopy. Whereas ZnO films grown on C-sapphire show a rough surface and hexagonal rods, the doped ZnO:Sb layers exhibit a relatively smoother surface, indicating a possible surfactant effect of antimony. The secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements permit to determine the antimony profile in the doped layers. Sb concentrations from 10 18 to 10 20 at/cm 3 were measured, depending on the growth conditions and substrate nature. Photoluminescence spectra exhibit donor-acceptor pair emission at 3.22 eV.

Characteristics of undoped and Sb‐doped ZnO thin films prepared in different atmospheres by pulsed laser deposition

“…Various techniques such as pulsed laser deposition (PLD) 8, 9, 14, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) 10, metallorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) 11, 15, 16, RF magnetron sputtering 12, 17, and sol–gel 13, 18 had been used to prepare Sb‐doped ZnO thin films. Among these techniques, PLD seems to be the most attractive since it can offer the potential of growing high‐quality thin films at relatively lower substrate temperature than other techniques.…”