Laser-MBE growth of high-quality ZnO thin films on Al2O3(00.1) and SiO2/Si(100) using the third harmonics of a Nd:YAG laser

Abstract

High-quality ZnO thin films were grown on single-crystalline Al2O3(0001) and amorphous SiO2/Si(100) substrates at 400-640degreesC using laser molecular beam epitaxy. For film growth, the third harmonics of a pulsed Nd:YAG laser were illuminated on a ZnO target. The ZnO films were epitaxially grown on Al2O3(0001) with the narrow X-ray diffraction full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.04degrees and the films on SiO2/Si(100) exhibited a preferred c-axis orientation. Furthermore, the films exhibited excellent optical properties in photoluminescence (PL) measurements with very sharp excitonic and weak deep-level emission peaks. At 15 K, PL FWHM values of the films grown on Al2O3 (0001) and SiO2/Si(100) were 3 and 18 meV, respectively.