Influence of annealing time on the morphology and oxygen content of ZnO:Ga thin films

Abstract

The effect of annealing time on the morphology and oxygen content of ZnO:Ga films has been deeply studied. ZnO:Ga films were grown with the use of the dc Magnetron Sputtering on the corning glass substrate. The films are grown with a plasma power of 30 watt, Argon gas pressure of 500 mtorr, and a substrate temperature of 300 °C for an hour deposition. The effect of annealing time on the morphology of ZnO:Ga films was observed by using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), whereas the oxygen content of the film was determined by Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectrometers. The SEM images showed that the ZnO:Ga film grown with an annealing time of 40 minutes possess relatively more homogeneous and compact morphology with smoother grain size than the ZnO:Ga films that deposited with annealing times of 30 and 50 minutes. The EDX results confirmed that this film possess lowest oxygen content (24.5 % of mass) but highest Ga content (1.7 % of mass) comparated to the ZnO:Ga thin films grown with another annealing times.