Performance improvement of ZnO film by room-temperature oxygen plasma pretreatment

• Published in: Transactions of Nonferrous Metals Society of China 2006-06, Vol.16 (B01), p.310-312
• Main Author: 赵平 夏义本 王林军 刘健敏 徐闰 彭鸿雁 史伟民
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: c-axis orientation; nanocrystalline diamond film; oxygen plasma; SAW device; ZnO film; 声表面波器件; 性能改进; 氧化锌薄膜; 氧等离子体预处理; 纳米晶金刚石膜
• ISSN: 1003-6326
• DOI: 10.1016/S1003-6326(06)60198-2

The room-temperature oxygen plasma treatment before depositing ZnO films on nanocrystalline diamond substrates was studied. The nanocrystalline diamond substrates were pretreated in oxygen plasma at 50 W for 30 min at room temperature and then ZnO films were sputtered on diamond substrates at 400 W. The X-ray diffraction （XRD） patterns show that the c-axis orientation of ZnO film increases evidently after oxygen plasma pretreatment. The AFM and SEM measurements also show that the high c-axis orientation of ZnO film and the average surface roughness is less than 5 nm. The resistivity of ZnO films increases nearly two orders of magnitude to 1.04 - 10^8 Ω.cm. As a result, room-temperature oxygen plasma pretreatment is indeed a simple and effective way to improve the performance of ZnO film used in SAW devices by ameliorating the combination between diamond film and ZnO film and also complementing the absence of oxygen atoms in ZnO film.