• Bernstorff, Sigrid
• Krstulović, Nikša
• Kregar, Zlatko
• Juraić, Krunoslav
• Skenderović, Hrvoje
• Siketić, Zdravko
• Gracin, Davor
• Salamon, Krešimir
• Meljanac, Daniel
• Rakić, Iva Šrut
• Plodinec, Milivoj

Abstract

<jats:p>Thin ZnO:Al layers were deposited by pulsed laser deposition in vacuum and in oxygen atmosphere at gas pressures between 10 and 70 Pa and by applying radio-frequency (RF) plasma. Grazing incidence small angle x-ray scattering and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) data showed that an increase in the oxygen pressure leads to an increase in the roughness, a decrease in the sample density, and changes in the size distribution of nanovoids. The nanocrystal sizes estimated from GIXRD were around 20 nm, while the sizes of the nanovoids increased from 1 to 2 nm with the oxygen pressure. The RF plasma mainly influenced the nanostructural properties and point defects dynamics. The photoluminescence consisted of three contributions, ultraviolet (UV), blue emission due to Zn vacancies, and red emission, which are related to an excess of oxygen. The RF excitation lowered the defect level related to blue emission and narrowed the UV luminescence peak, which indicates an improvement of the structural ordering. The observed influence of the deposition conditions on the film properties is discussed as a consequence of two main effects: the variation of the energy transfer from the laser plume to the growing film and changes in the growth chemistry.</jats:p>

Topics

• density
• impedance spectroscopy
• photoluminescence
• x-ray diffraction
• thin film
• Oxygen
• pulsed laser deposition
• small angle x-ray scattering
• point defect