Studies on morphology properties of ZnO thin films deposited on Si(111)substrate

ZnO films were successfully deposited on Si(111) by self-designed PECVD,using carbon dioxide/hydrogen gas and diethylzinc with nitrogen gas as reactant sources.The temperature of deposition ZnO thin films was 400℃ and 450℃ respectively.Surface and section morphology of ZnO thin films were characterized by atomic force microscopy(AFM) and environment scanning electron microscopy(ESEM) attached with energy diffraction analysis of X-rays(EDX).The results showed that growth temperature played an important role in morphology of ZnO thin films and bonding with the Si(111) substrate.From analyzing surface images of ZnO thin films grown at different growth temperature,some grains which were grown at 450℃ encircled into hexagon structure and were arranged more regularly than the sample grown at 400℃.It indicated further that ZnO thin films with a strong c-axis orientation had been obtained at growth temperature of 450℃ by analyzing XRD and section images of ZnO thin films grown at different growth temperature.It was found that there was a straight line between silicon and ZnO thin films,and ZnO thin films had no fault trace or winding trace if thin films had annealed at high temperature.It showed that zinc or oxygen atomic had some chemical bonding with surface atomic of silicon.