Effect of growth temperature on structural, electrical and optical properties of dual ion beam sputtered ZnO thin films

• Published in: Journal of materials science. Materials in electronics Vol. 24; no. 7; pp. 2541 - 2547
• Main Authors: Pandey, Sushil Kumar, Pandey, Saurabh Kumar, Mukherjee, C., Mishra, P., Gupta, M., Barman, S. R., D’Souza, S. W., Mukherjee, Shaibal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston Springer US 01.07.2013; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Deposition by sputtering; Electrical properties; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Ion beam sputtering; Materials; Materials Science; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Molecular, atomic, ion, and chemical beam epitaxy; Optical and Electronic Materials; Optical properties; Optical properties and condensed-matter spectroscopy and other interactions of matter with particles and radiation; Photoluminescence; Physics; Point defects; Thin films; X-rays; Zinc oxide; Angular Peak Position; Native Point Defect; Deep Level Emission Peak; Probe Hall Measurement; Binding Energy Curve; Photoluminescence; Substrat temperature; Thin film; Surface structure; p type semiconductor; Optical properties; n type semiconductor; Optical characteristic; Stress effects; Zinc oxide; Visible spectrum; Silicon; Crystal morphology; Electrical characteristic; Oxygen; Electrical properties; Surface morphology; Ion beam sputtering; Epitaxial film; Ion beam coating; Preferred orientation; Film growth; X ray diffractometry; Room temperature; Edge emission; Deep level
• ISSN: 0957-4522; 1573-482X
• DOI: 10.1007/s10854-013-1130-5

ZnO epitaxial thin films were grown on p-type Si(100) substrates by dual ion beam sputtering deposition system. The crystalline quality, surface morphology, optical and electrical properties of as-deposited ZnO thin films at different growth temperatures were studied. Substrate temperature was varied from 100 to 600 °C at constant oxygen percentage O 2 /(O 2  + Ar) % of 66.67 % in a mixed gas of Ar and O 2 with constant chamber pressure of 2.75 × 10 −4 mBar. X-Ray diffraction analyses revealed that all the films had (002) preferred orientation. The minimum value of stress was reported to be −0.32 × 10 10  dyne/cm 2 from ZnO film grown at 200 °C. Photoluminescence measurements demonstrated sharp near-band-edge emission (NBE) was observed at ~375 nm along with deep level emission (DLE) in the visible spectral range at room temperature. The DLE Peak was found to have decrement as ZnO growth temperature was increased from 200 to 600 °C. The minimum FWHM of the NBE peak of 16.76 nm was achieved at 600 °C growth temperature. X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy study revealed presence of oxygen interstitials and vacancies point defects in ZnO film grown at 400 °C. The ZnO thin film was found to be highly resistive when grown at 100 °C. The ZnO films were found to be n-type conducting with decreasing resistivity on increasing substrate temperature from 200 to 500 °C and again increased for film grown at 600 °C. Based on these studies a correlation between native point defects, optical and electrical properties has been established.