RF Power and Thermal Annealing Effect on the Properties of Zinc Oxide Films Prepared by Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering

Polycrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) films were prepared by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering under different powers. The XRD results showed that ZnO crystallite size along c-axis decreased by 43% with deposition power increased from 60 Wto 300 W, increased 36% with annealing temperature rising to 400∘C. TDSmeasurement revealed that the desorption peaks of both atomic Zn (60 W-deposited)and oxygen molecule (180 W and 300 W-deposited) obtained from ZnO films wereoriginated from 300∘C. When annealing temperature was higher than 300∘C, the sheetresistance dramatically decreased, and compressive stress in the (002) plane changed totensile stress as well. The comparison measurements of ZnO films crystallinity strongly suggested that both lower deposition power and certain thermal annealing temperatureover 300∘C would contribute to the formation of high quality ZnO films