Morphology and optical properties of zinc oxide thin films grown on Si (100) by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

Undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on Si (100) substrates by atmospheric pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (AP-MOCVD). After a nucleation layer of ZnO about 500 Å was deposited, top ZnO films with 320–440 nm in thickness were fabricated at temperatures varying from 450 to 600 °C, respectively. X-ray diffraction analyses demonstrate that all the films grown have polycrystalline wurtzite structure. Scanning electron microscopy observations indicate that ZnO films grow with c-axis aligned grains when the deposition temperature is lower than 600 °C. However, 3D microstructures without c-axis alignment were found when the film was deposited at 600 °C. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra peaking at 3.27–3.29 eV were observed for the ZnO films grown at 450–600 °C. However, only the spectrum from the film grown at 600 °C could present a high intensity ratio of the ultraviolet band to deep-level emissions, which is above 392 and show a minimum full-width at half-maximum of 99 meV for the ultraviolet band. Temperature-dependent PL measurements from 20 to 300 K exhibited the luminescent mechanism of the present ZnO films to be near band excitonic emission.