Growth and characterization of device quality ZnO on Si(111) and c-sapphire using a conventional rf magnetron sputtering

In this article, it is shown that high quality ZnO films were grown on Si(111) and Al2O3(0001) substrates using a conventional rf magnetron sputtering. High-resolution X-ray diffractometry (HR-XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and photoluminescence (PL) investigations clearly confirmed that the ZnO films grown on Al2O3 ( 0001) at substrate temperatures above 650. C are single crystal as well as high optical quality. It is also estimated in both cases grown on Si and Al2O3 that an introduction of template pre-grown at 500 degrees C can induce a homogeneous interface and improvement of emission characteristic by relaxing the strain caused by large lattice and thermal mismatch between the film and substrate and by reducing defect density in interface region.