Effects of Annealing Temperature on Properties of ZnO Thin Films Grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition

TN304.21; ZnO thin films are deposited on n-Si(111) substrates by pulsed laser deposition(PLD) system.Then the samples are annealed at different temperatures in air ambient and their properties are investigated particularly as a function of annealing temperature.The microstructure,morphology and optical properties of the as-grown ZnO films are studied by X-ray diffraction(XRD),atomic force microscope(AFM),Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy(FTIR) and photoluminescence(PL) spectra.The results show that the as-grown ZnO films have a hexagonal wurtzite structure with a preferred c-axis orientation.Moreover,the diameters of the ZnO crystallites become larger and the crystal quality of the ZnO films is improved with the increase of annealing temperature.