Effect of substrate on ZnO thin films synthesized by sol-gel method
SHR-NAN BAI1,*
Affiliation
- Department of Electronic Engineering and Institute of Electronic, Chienkuo Technology University, Changhua City, Taiwan 500, ROC
Abstract
ZnO thin films have attracted significant attention because of their applications in surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices, gas sensors, solar cells etc. based on their multifunctional piezoelectric, thermal, electrical, and optical properties. The stoichiometric ZnO films with highly insulating and piezoelectric characteristics are very effective for ultrasonic oscillator devices. For example, in SAW applications, ZnO thin films must have a smooth surface be highly insulating and have a high packing density. In this investigation, sol-gel synthesis technique is adopted to prepare effective ZnO thin films on single crystalline silicon and amorphous glass substrates to study the influence of the substrate on ZnO films. Highly c-axis oriented ZnO thin films have been produced by the sol-gel method on various substrates. The morphologies and microstructures of the ZnO films were observed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The surface roughness was determined using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The crystallization and orientation of the ZnO films were identified from X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns. The dependence of the crystallization and preferred orientation of the ZnO films on various substrates is characterized..
Keywords
ZnO, Thin film, Sol-gel method, Substrate.
Citation
SHR-NAN BAI, Effect of substrate on ZnO thin films synthesized by sol-gel method, Optoelectronics and Advanced Materials - Rapid Communications, 4, 5, May 2010, pp.654-656 (2010).
Submitted at: April 5, 2010
Accepted at: May 20, 2010