Structural and optical properties of ZnO fabricated by reactive e-beam and rf magnetron sputtering techniques

Zinc oxide thin films have been grown on (100)‐oriented silicon substrate by reactive e‐beam evaporation and rf magnetron sputtering techniques and a comparative study is discussed in this paper. Structural, electrical and optical characteristics have been studied before and after annealing in air by measurements of X‐ray diffraction, real parts of the dielectric coefficient, and electrical resistivity. X‐ray diffraction measurements have shown that ZnO films are highly c‐axis‐oriented with a full width at half maximum (FWMH) lower than 0.5°. The electrical resistivity is about 1011 Ω.cm for magnetron sputtered films and it increases from 10–2Ω.cm to about 109Ω.cm after annealing at 750 °C for electron beam evaporated films. Ellipsometry measurements have shown some improvement of the real dielectric coefficient after annealing treatment at 750 °C of the ZnO evaporated by electron beam. The AFM images show that the surfaces of the e‐beam evaporated ZnO and of the sputtered ZnO are relatively smooth. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)