Pure UV photoluminescence from ZnO thin film by thermal retardation and using an amorphous SiO2 buffer layer

ZnO/SiO₂ thin films were fabricated on Si substrates by E-beam evaporation with thermal retardation. The as-prepared films were annealed for 2 h every 100 °C in the temperature range 400-800 °C under ambient air. The structural and optical properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and photoluminescence (PL). The XRD analysis indicated that all ZnO thin films had a highly preferred orientation with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. From AFM images (AFM scan size is 1 μm×1 μm), the RMS roughnesses of the films were 3.82, 5.18, 3.65, 3.40 and 13.2 nm, respectively. PL measurements indicated that UV luminescence at only 374 nm was observed for all samples. The optical quality of the ZnO film was increased by thermal retardation and by using an amorphous SiO₂ buffer layer.     

CVD两步法生长ZnO薄膜及其光致发光特性

用CVD两步法在常压下于p型Si(100)衬底上沉积出具有较好择优取向的多晶ZnO薄膜。在325nm波长的光激发下,室温下可观察到显著的紫外光发射(峰值波长381nm)。高温退火后氧空位缺陷浓度增加,出现了一个450~600nm的绿光发光带,发光峰值在510nm。作为比较,用一步法生长的ZnO薄膜结晶质量稍差。在其PL谱中不仅有峰值波长389nm的紫外发射而且还出现了一个很强的蓝光发光中心(峰值波长437nm),退火后同样产生绿光发光带。对这两种绿光发光带的发光机制进行了研究,认为前者源于VO,而后者与O_Zn有密切的关系。     

ZnO/Zn界面对纳米ZnO薄膜光学性质的影响

采用氧等离子体辅助电子束蒸发金属Zn后低温退火的方法制备纳米ZnO薄膜。利用X射线衍射(XRD)谱、拉曼(Raman)谱、X射线光电子能谱(XPS)以及光致发光(PL)谱等手段,分析了退火温度及ZnO/Zn界面对样品的结构和发光性质的影响。Raman结果表明随着退火温度的升高,界面模式(Es)振动减弱并向低波数方向移动。当退火温度为400℃时,界面振动消失,Zn全部转化成具有六方纤锌矿结构的ZnO,得到化学配比的纳米ZnO薄膜。PL谱表明,经400℃退火处理的样品紫外发射最强,发光性质最好。     

退火及超声处理对ZnO薄膜结构和发光特性的影响

 利用对向靶射频磁控溅射系统在Si（100）衬底上制备了ZnO薄膜，并对其进行了退火和超声处理。采用XRD,AFM和光致发光谱对其结构、表面形貌和性能进行了分析。结果表明：沉积态ZnO薄膜（002）择优取向稍差,尺寸较小,表面粗糙度较大。随退火温度的升高，颗粒粒径增大，样品的取向性和结晶度都明显变好，应力状态由压应力转变为张应力,粗糙度降低。超声处理缓解了薄膜中的张应力，晶粒尺寸更趋增大;用波长为280 nm的激发光激发薄膜时，沉积态薄膜无发光峰存在;随着退火温度升高，出现了一个378 nm的紫外峰和一个398 nm的紫峰;紫外峰峰值强度随退火温度升高不断增强，而紫峰的峰位随退火温度升高基本不发生变化，峰值强度增强;700 ℃退火后的薄膜经超声处理后，发光谱中出现了峰值波长为519 nm的绿色发光带。     

Initial study on the structure and photoluminescence properties of SiC films doped with Al

SiC films doped with aluminum (Al) were prepared by the rf-magnetron sputtering technique on p-Si substrates with a composite target of a single crystalline SiC containing several Al pieces on the surface. The as-deposited films were annealed in the temperature range of 400-800 °C under nitrogen ambient. The thin films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results show that the introduction of Al into films hinders crystalline formation process. And with the increase of annealing temperature, more Si particles are formed in the films, which strongly affect the optical absorption properties. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the samples show two peaks at 370 nm and 412 nm. The intensities of the PL peaks are evidently improved after Al doped. We attribute the origin of the two PL peaks to a kind of Si-related defect centres. The obtained results are expected to have important applications in modern optoelectronic devices.     

LP-MOCVD异质外延ZnO薄膜中的应力及对缺陷的影响

利用低压金属有机化学气相淀积(LP-MOCVD)在Si基片上外延生长ZnO薄膜，制备了两类样品 ：一类是在Si上直接外延ZnO，另一类是在Si上通过SiC过渡层来外延ZnO.根据两类样品的拉 曼光谱、x射线衍射、原子力显微图和光致发光的结果，表明ZnO外延薄膜中的张应力对薄膜 的结晶状况有着重要的影响，使用SiC过渡层能够有效缓解ZnO薄膜中的张应力，减小缺陷浓 度，提高ZnO外延层的质量；然后根据缺陷的形成机制进一步提出，对于ZnO/Si，其中较大 的张应力导致了高浓度的非辐射复合缺陷的形成，使得样品的紫外和绿峰的发射强度均大大 降低；对于ZnO/SiC/Si，其中较小的张应力导致ZnO薄膜中主要形成氧替位缺陷O_{Zn，从而使发光中的绿峰增强. 关键词： ZnO薄膜 应力 缺陷 拉曼光谱}     

Comparison of ZnO thin films grown on a polycrystalline 3C-SiC buffer layer by RF magnetron sputtering and a sol-gel method

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on a polycrystalline (poly) 3C-SiC buffer layer using RF magnetron sputtering and a sol-gel method. The post-deposition annealing was performed on ZnO thin films prepared using both methods. The formation of ZnO piezoelectric thin films with less residual stress was due to a close lattice mismatch of the ZnO and SiC layers as obtained by the sputtering method. Nanocrystalline, porous ZnO film prepared using the sol-gel method showed strong ultraviolet UV emission at a wavelength of 380 nm. The 3C-SiC buffer layer improved the optical and piezoelectric properties of the ZnO film produced by the two deposition methods. Moreover, the different structures of the ZnO films on the 3C-SiC intermediate layer caused by the different deposition techniques were also considered and discussed.     

SiC缓冲层对Si表面生长的 ZnO薄膜结构和光电性能的改善

用脉冲激光沉积(PLD)技术制备了ZnO/SiC/Si和 ZnO/Si薄膜并制成了紫外探测器。利用X射线衍射(XRD),光致发光(PL)谱,I-V曲线和光电响应谱对薄膜的结构和光电性能进行了研究。实验结果表明:SiC缓冲层改善了ZnO薄膜的结晶质量和光电性能,其原因可能是SiC作为柔性衬底能够减少ZnO与Si 之间大的晶格失配和热失配导致的界面缺陷和界面态。     

Effects of sic buffer layer on the optical properties of ZnO films grown on Si (1 1 1) substrates

ZnO films have been grown by a sol-gel process on Si (1 1 1) substrates with and without SiC buffer layers. The influence of SiC buffer layer on the optical properties of ZnO films grown on Si (1 1 1) substrates was investigated. The intensity of the E₂ (high) phonon peak in the micro-Raman spectrum of ZnO film with the SiC buffer layer is stronger than that of the sample without the SiC buffer layer, and the breadth of E₂ (high) phonon peak of ZnO film with the SiC buffer layer is narrower than that of the sample without the SiC buffer layer. These results indicated that the crystalline quality of the sample with the SiC buffer layer is better than that of the sample without the SiC buffer layer. In photoluminescence spectra, the intensity of free exciton emission from ZnO films with the SiC buffer was much stronger than that from ZnO film without the SiC buffer layer, while the intensity of deep level emission from sample with the SiC buffer layer was about half of that of sample without the SiC buffer layer. The results indicate the SiC buffer layer improves optical qualities of ZnO films on Si (1 1 1) substrates.     

The Effects of Thermal Treatments on Microstructure Phosphorus-Doped ZnO Layers Grown by Thermal Evaporation

The ZnO films doped with 3 wt% phosphorus (P) were produced by activating phosphorus doped ZnO (ZnO:P) thin films in oxygen (O₂) ambient at 600°C for 30, 60, 90 and 120 min, respectively. As-deposited films doped with phosphorus are highly conductive and n type. All the films showed p-type conduction after annealing, in an O₂ ambient atmosphere. The activation energies of the phosphorus dopant in the p-type ZnO under O₂ ambient gases indicate that phosphorus substitution on the O site yielded a deep level in the gap. With a further increase of the annealed durations, the crystalline quality of the ZnO:P sample is degraded. The best p-type ZnO:P film deposited at 600°C for 30 min shows a resistivity of 1.85 Ω cm and a relatively high hole concentration of 5.1 × 10¹⁷cm^–3 at room temperature. The films exhibit a polycrystalline hexagonal wurtzite structure without preferred orientation. The mean grain sizes are calculated to be about 60, 72, 78, 85 and 90 nm for the p-type ZnO films prepared at 600°C for 30, 60, 90 and 120 min, respectively. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the ZnO film exhibit two emission bands — paramount excitonic ultraviolet (UV) emission and weak deep level visible emission. The excellent emission from the film annealed at 600°C for 30 min is attributed to the good crystalline quality of the p-type ZnO film and the low rate of formation of intrinsic defects at such short duration. The visible emission consists of two components in the green range.     

Low-temperature MOVPE growth of ZnO thin films by using a buffer layer

ZnO thin films have been grown on a-plane (1,1,−2,0) sapphire substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) at low substrate temperature of 350 °C. It is showed that the crystal and electrical quality of the thin films was improved by using a ZnO buffer layer. The photoluminescence (PL) measurements indicate that the ZnO thin films grown at such a low substrate temperature have a strong UV emission.     

退火温度对ZnO薄膜结构和发光特性的影响

采用反应射频磁控溅射法在 Si(100)基片上制备了高c轴择优取向的ZnO薄膜，研究了退火温度对ZnO薄膜的晶粒尺度、应力状态、成分和发光光谱的影响，探讨了ZnO薄膜的紫外发光光谱和可见发光光谱与薄膜的微观状态之间的关系.研究结果显示,在600—1000℃退火温度范围内，退火对薄膜的织构取向的影响较小，但薄膜的应力状态和成分有比较明显的变化.室温下光致发光光谱分析发现，薄膜的近紫外光谱特征与薄膜的晶粒尺度和缺陷状态之间存在着明显的对应关系；而近紫外光谱随退火温度升高所呈现的整体峰位红移是各激子峰相对比例变 关键词： ZnO薄膜 退火 光致发光 射频反应磁控溅射 可见光发射     

Luminescence mechanism of ZnO thin film investigated by XPS measurement

The effects of annealing environment on the luminescence characteristics of ZnO thin films that were deposited on SiO₂/Si substrates by reactive RF magnetron sputtering were investigated by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and photoluminescence (PL). An analysis of the O 1s peak of ZnO film revealed that the concentration of oxygen vacancies increased with the annealing temperature from 600 °C to 900 °C under an ambient atmosphere. The PL results demonstrated that the intensity of green light emission at 523 nm also increased with temperature. Under various annealing atmospheres, the analyses of PL indicated that only one emission peak (523 nm) was obtained, indicating that only one class of defect was responsible for the green luminescence. The green light emission was strongest and the concentration of oxygen vacancies was highest when the ZnO film was annealed in ambient atmosphere at 900 °C. The results in this investigation show that the luminescence mechanism of the emission of green light from a ZnO thin film is associated primarily with oxygen vacancies. PACS 81.15.Cd; 81.40.Ef; 78.55.-m; 78.55.Et     

The structure and photoluminescence properties of Cr-doped SiC films

Cr-doped SiC films are prepared by the RF-magnetron sputtering technique on Si substrates with a composite target of a single-crystalline SiC containing several Cr pieces on the surface. The as-deposited films are annealed in the temperature of 1000 °C under nitrogen ambient. The structure of the samples has been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman scattering measurement. The results show that the SiC crystal is formed and that majority of Cr doped in the SiC resulted in the formation of the C clusters. Then the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the samples are observed in the visible range at room temperature. The optical properties of the samples have also been discussed briefly. We attribute the origin of the 412-nm PL band to a kind of C cluster center.     

纳米ZnO薄膜的激子光致发光特性

报道了纳米ZnO薄膜激子光致发光(PL)与温度的关系。首先利用低压金属有机化学气相沉积(LPMOCVD)技术生长ZnS薄膜,然后将ZnS薄膜在氧气中于800℃下热氧化2h获得纳米ZnO薄膜。X射线衍射(XRD)结果表明,纳米ZnO薄膜具有六角纤锌矿多晶结构且具有择优(002)取向。室温下观察到一束强的紫外(326eV)光致发光(PL)和很弱的深能级(DL)发射。根据激子峰的半高宽(FWHM)与温度的关系,确定了激子纵向光学声子(LO)的耦合强度(ГLO)。     

Effects of high-dose Ge ion implantation and post-implantation annealing on ZnO thin films

This paper reports that ion implantation to a dose of 1×10¹⁷ ions/cm² was performed on c-axis-orientated ZnO thin films deposited on (0001) sapphire substrates by the sol-gel technique. After ion implantation, the as-implanted ZnO films were annealed in argon ambient at different temperatures from 600-900℃. The effects of ion implantation and post-implantation annealing on the structural and optical properties of the ZnO films were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL). It was found that the intensities of (002) peak and near band edge (NBE) exitonic ultraviolet emission increased with increasing annealing temperature from 600-900℃. The defect related deep level emission (DLE) firstly increased with increasing annealing temperature from 600- 750℃, and then decreased quickly with increasing annealing temperature. The recovery of the intensities of NBE and DLE occurs at \sim 850℃ and \sim 750℃ respectively. The relative PL intensity ratio of NBE to DLE showed that the quality of ZnO films increased continuously with increasing annealing temperature from 600 - 900℃.     

Post-annealing influence on properties of N-In codoped ZnO thin films prepared by ion beam enhanced deposition method

N-In codoped ZnO thin films were prepared by ion beam enhanced deposition method (IBED) and were annealed in nitrogen and oxygen ambient after deposition. The influence of post-annealing on structure, electrical and optical properties of thin films were investigated. As-deposited and all post-annealed samples showed preferential orientation along (0 0 2) plane. Electrical property studies indicated that the as-deposited ZnO film showed p-type with a sheet resistance of 67.5 kΩ. For ZnO films annealed in nitrogen with the annealing temperature increasing from 400 to 800 °C, the conduction type of the ZnO film changed from p-type to n-type. However, for samples annealed in oxygen the resistance increased sharply even at a low annealing temperature of 400 °C and the conduction type did not change. Room temperature PL spectra of samples annealed in N₂ and in O₂ showed UV peak located at 381 and 356 nm, respectively.     

Optical properties of ZnO thin films on SiO2 substrates deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering

The optical properties of both the annealed and as-deposited ZnO thin films by radio frequency (RF)magnetron sputtering on SiO2 substrates were studied. In the annealed films, two pronounced well defined exciton absorption peaks for the A and B excitons were obtained in the absorption spectra, a strong free exciton emission without deep-level emissions was observed in the photoluminescence (PL) spectra at room temperature. It was found that annealing the films in oxygen dramatically improved the optical properties and the quality of the films.     

Structure and properties of ZnO films grown on Si substrates with low temperature buffer layers

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were grown on Si (1 0 0) substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) using two-step epitaxial growth method. Low temperature buffer layer (LTBL) was initially deposited in order to obtain high quality ZnO thin film; the as-deposited films were then annealed in air at 700 °C. The effects of LTBL and annealing treatment on the structural and luminescent properties of ZnO thin film were investigated. It was found that tensile strain was remarkably relaxed by employing LTBL and the band-gap redshifted, correspondingly. The shift value was larger than that calculated from band-gap theories. After annealing treatment, it was found that the annealing temperature with 700 °C has little influence on strains of ZnO films with LTBLs other than directly deposited film in our experiments. Interestingly, the different behaviors in terms of the shift of ultraviolet (UV) emission after annealing between films with and without buffer were observed, and a tentative explanation was given in this paper.     

ZnO-Si不同退火条件对生长ZnSe薄膜的影响

研究了作为缓冲层的ZnO薄膜在不同的退火时间、退火温度下退火对Si衬底上生长ZnSe膜质量的影响。当溅射有ZnO膜的Si(111)衬底的退火条件变化时，从X射线衍射谱（XRD）和光致发光谱（PL）中可见，ZnSe(111)膜的晶体质量有较大的变化。变温的PL谱表明，Si衬底上生长的具有ZnO缓冲层的ZnSe膜的近带边发射峰起源于自由激子发射。