Growth and characterization of pulsed laser deposited ZnO thin films

Abstract

Abstract:One of the most important and promising materials from metal oxides is ZnO with specific properties for near UV emission and absorption optical devices. The properties of ZnO thin films strongly depend on the deposition method. Among them, pulsed laser deposition (PLD) plays an important role for preparing various kinds of ZnO films, e.g. doped, undoped, monocrystalline, and polycrystalline. Different approaches -ablation of sintered ZnO pellets or pure metallic Zn as target material are described. This contribution is comparing properties of ZnO thin films deposited from pure Zn target in oxygen atmosphere and those deposited from sintered ZnO target. There is a close connection between final thin film properties and PLD conditions. The surface properties of differently grown ZnO thin films are measured by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Furthermore, different approaches -ablation of sintered ZnO pellet or pure metallic Zn as target materials are described. The main results characterize typical properties of ZnO films versus technological parameters are presented.

Abundant Acceptor Emission from Nitrogen-Doped ZnO Films Prepared by Atomic Layer Deposition under Oxygen-Rich Conditions

“…8 In this context, the temperature of growth seems to be a critical issue in obtaining the p-type ZnO, the problem which has not been properly addressed to date. Oxygen-rich conditions, which are beneficial for achieving the p-type conductivity, can be reached at very low (about 100 °C) or, alternatively, at very high growth temperatures (above 700 °C), 7,9 while the overwhelming majority of efforts toward acceptor conductivity of ZnO is focused on samples grown at 400−600 °C. The latter growth temperature range does not ensure oxygen-rich conditions and thus seems to be not the best choice for a successful p-type doping.…”

Compositional, Structural, Morphological, and Optical Properties of ZnO Thin Films Prepared by PECVD Technique

“…Due to these promising properties, we were interested in the synthesis and growth of ZnO thin nanostructured films, which can increase their electrical properties [19][20][21]. ZnO nanostructured films can be obtained by several methods which can be of physical type such as radio frequency magnetron sputtering [22,23], electron beam evaporation [24,25], pulsed laser deposition [26,27], molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) [28,29], or of chemical type as spin coating [30,31], dip coating [32,33], spray pyrolysis [34,35], chemical vapor deposition (CVD) [36,37] and plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) [38,39]. Out of these, PECVD is of particular interest due to its simplicity, lack of need for ultra-high vacuum requirement, and its capability of deposing films of good crystalline quality.…”

ZnO thin films grown at different plasma energies by the laser ablation of metallic Zn with a 532 nm wavelength

“…PLD method allows the deposition of highquality zinc oxide nanostructured thin films, by the ablation of ZnO targets (frequently used) or by ablation of a Zn target (necessarily under O 2 atmosphere). One of the most significant differences between ZnO thin films deposited by PLD from a Zn target and ZnO targets is the thickness; deposited layers by ablating of Zn metallic targets are usually thinner [14,15], this can be an advantage in the fabrication of nanoscale devices. Dynamics of the plasma in PLD method have been used to modify the physical properties of the deposited materials [16][17][18].…”