Deposition and properties of ZnSiO3-containing zinc oxide thin films reactively sputtered at room temperature

•ZnO thin films are grown at room temperature on glass using radiofrequency sputtering.•A RF-power-dependent and thermally-annihilable ZnSiO3 phase forms at ambient.•The interdiffusion-strain relaxation competition is involved in the growth dynamics.•Energies of near-band edges, deep levels, and ban...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Thin solid films 2020-09, Vol.709, p.138218, Article 138218
Main Authors: ROCHDI, Nabil, EL BOUJLAIDI, Abdelaziz, AFKIR, Ahmad, VEGA, Enrique, YAGOUBI, Saïd, EL GABBAS, Younes
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemical Sciences
Material chemistry
Optical transmittance
Photoluminescence
Reactive radio-frequency sputtering
Scanning electron microscopy
Thin films
X-ray diffraction
Zinc oxide
Zinc silicate
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Summary:•ZnO thin films are grown at room temperature on glass using radiofrequency sputtering.•A RF-power-dependent and thermally-annihilable ZnSiO3 phase forms at ambient.•The interdiffusion-strain relaxation competition is involved in the growth dynamics.•Energies of near-band edges, deep levels, and band-to-band transitions are determined. Zinc oxide thin films were deposited on glass substrates using reactive radio-frequency sputtering at room temperature over a range of radio-frequency powers (from 100 to 250 W). The morphological, structural and optical properties of the deposited thin films were investigated using X-ray diffraction, optical transmission measurements, scanning electron microscopy, and photoluminescence measurements. All the as-grown thin films consist of hexagonal ZnO, and a crystalline ZnSiO3 phase for several radio-frequency powers. The post-annealing in air at 550 °C results in the deterioration of the ZnSiO3 phase and an improvement in the ZnO crystallinity of the samples, with a crystallite size ranging from 20 to 30 nm. The clustering of the post-annealed sample is promoted by a critical amount of ZnSiO3 in the as-grown samples. Optical transmission and photoluminescence analyses revealed the bandgap and the energy transitions in the deposited ZnO. As-grown thin films exhibit a direct bandgap of 3.29 eV. Crystalline ZnSiO3 was found to enable a direct transition with an energy of 2.87 eV at room temperature.
ISSN:0040-6090
1879-2731
DOI:10.1016/j.tsf.2020.138218