CHARACTERISTICS OF HIGH-QUALITY ZNO THIN-FILMS DEPOSITED BY PULSED-LASER DEPOSITION

Thin films of ZnO have been deposited on glass and silicon substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique employing a KrF laser (lambda = 248 nm). The influence of the deposition parameters, such as substr ate temperature, oxygen pressure, and laser fluence on the properties of the grown films, has been studied. All the films grown over a rathe r wide range of deposition conditions were found to be optically trans parent, electrically conductive, and c-axis oriented, with the full wi dth at half-maximum (FWHM) of the (002) x-ray reflection line being ve ry often less than 0.25-degrees. Under optimized laser fluence and oxy gen pressure conditions, highly c-axis oriented films having a FWHM va lue less than 0.15-degrees and optical transmittance around 85% in the visible region of the spectrum have been grown at a substrate tempera ture of only 350-degrees-C. These are among the best properties yet re ported for ZnO films grown by any technique at such a low temperature. (C) 1994 American Institute of Physics.