Role of oxygen atoms in the growth of magnetron sputter-deposited ZnO films

Journal Article · Sun Aug 15 00:00:00 EDT 2010 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3457867· OSTI ID:21476404

Jie, Jin; Morita, Aya; Shirai, Hajime ^[1]

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1. Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Saitama University, 255 Shimo-Okubo, Sakura-ku, Saitama 338-8570 (Japan)

The role of oxygen atoms in the growth of magnetron sputter-deposited ZnO films was studied by alternating the deposition of a several-nanometer-thick ZnO layer and the O{sub 2}/Ar mixture plasma exposure, i.e., layer-by-layer technique. The film crystallization promoted with suppressing the oxygen vacancy and interstitial defects by adjusting the exposure condition of O{sub 2}/Ar plasma. These findings suggest that the chemical potential of oxygen atom determine the film crystallization as well as the electronic state. The diffusion and effusion of oxygen atoms at the growing surface play a role of thermal annealing, promoted the film crystallization as well as the creation and the annihilation of oxygen and zinc related defects. The role of oxygen atoms reaching at the film-growing surface is discussed in term of chemical annealing. The possible oxygen diffusion mechanism is proposed.

• OSTI ID: 21476404
• Journal Information: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 108, Issue 3; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.3457867; (c) 2010 American Institute of Physics; ISSN 0021-8979
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
ANNEALING
ATOMS
CRYSTAL GROWTH
CRYSTALLIZATION
CRYSTALS
DEPOSITION
DIFFUSION
INTERSTITIALS
LAYERS
NANOSTRUCTURES
OXYGEN
PLASMA
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
SPUTTERING
THIN FILMS
VACANCIES
ZINC OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CRYSTAL DEFECTS
CRYSTAL STRUCTURE
ELEMENTS
FILMS
HEAT TREATMENTS
MATERIALS
NONMETALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POINT DEFECTS
ZINC COMPOUNDS