Due to its high Young's modulus, diamond has the highest acoustic wave velo
city among all materials and is expected to be a candidate substrate for hi
gh-frequency surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices. In this study, the deposi
tion of ZnO, as a piezoelectric layer, on a diamond substrate is investigat
ed. ZnO has been fabricated by using RF magnetron sputtering with a ZnO tar
get and various Ar/O-2 gas ratios, RF powers, and substrate temperatures at
a vacuum of 10(-5) Torr. The sputtered ZnO films are characterized by X-ra
y diffraction (XRD), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), X-ray ph
otoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and I-V characteristics. All the films show
only a (002) orientation, The atomic concentration of the sputtered ZnO fi
lms is changed by the oxygen gas ratio, and the ZnO films are grown with a
homogeneous composition over their entire thickness. The electrical resisti
vity of the films varied from 4x10(3) to 7x10(8) Ohm cm, depending on the A
r/O-2 gas ratio. The phase velocity achieved by using the ZnO/IDT/diamond s
tructure was about 6,000 m/sec.