Pulsed laser deposition of ZnO thin films for applications of light emission

ZnO is a material suitable for light emission. In order to investigate the light emission properties, ZnO thin films were deposited on (0001) sapphire substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique using an Nd:YAC lase r with a wavelength of 355 nm. The influence of the deposition parameters, such as oxygen pressure, substrate temperature and laser energy density var iation on the proper-ties of the grown film, was studied. The experiment wa s performed for substrate temperatures in the range 200-600 degrees C. The deposition chamber was filled with the oxygen at working pressures between 10(-6) and 5 X 10(-1) Torr. According to observations, the intensity of the light emission of laser-ablated ZnO thin films increased as substrate temp eratures increased from 200 to 600 degrees C. We investigated the structura l, electrical and optical properties of ZnO thin films using X-ray diffract ion (XRD), van der Pauw Hall measurements, photoluminescence (PL), and Ruth erford backscattering spectrometry (RBS). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.