Effect of annealing temperature on properties of MgxZn1-xO thin films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering

MgxZn1-xO films (x=0.16) have been prepared on silicon and sapphire substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. The effects of annealing temperature on the structure, morphology and optical properties of MgxZn1-xO films are studied using XRD, AFM, photoluminescence and the transmittance spectra. The results indicate that the thin films have hexagonal wurtzite single-phase structure of ZnO, a preferred orientation with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrates, and with increasing annealing temperature the intensities of the (002) peaks for the XRD, grain sizes and intensities of the UV photoluminescence peaks increase while the FWHM of (002) peaks decrease, which demonstrate that the high quality of MgxZn1-xO films deposited by RF magnetron sputtering can be obtained by controlling annealing temperature.