Influence of the processing conditions on the structural properties of ZnO layers obtained by PECVD

Abstract

The plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) is a powerful and flexible instrument for depositing thin layers, nanocomposites or nanostructures. In this work ZnO layers have been grown by metal-organic PECVD (RF - 13.56 MHz) on Si wafers. Zn acetylacetonate has been used as a precursor and oxygen as oxidant. The influence of the oxygen content in gas mixture, the total pressure, substrate temperature and ZnO seed layer on the structural properties of the layers deposited on Si wafers has been studied. ZnO layer properties were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD data have shown that all layers are crystalline with hexagonal wurtzite structure. The crystallites are preferentially oriented along c-axis direction perpendicular to the substrate surfaces. The results obtained indicate that by controlling the oxygen content in gas mixture, the total pressure and substrate temperature during the film growth one can control the formation of c-axis phase and the crystallite grain size. Nanorods with good alignment, vertically orientated to the substrate surface can be observed in the layers deposited at low content of O2 in plasma at substrate temperature of 400 °C. Due to their structural characteristics these layers are potential materials for preparing chemical- and biosensors where inherently large surface to volume ratio of structured materials are important prerequisite for enhanced sensitivity. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd.