RBS study of Ti/ZnO interface

We have studied the interface stability of the Ti(overlayer)/ZnO(substrate) system. Ti thin film was grown on the Zn face of single crystal ZnO(0 0 0 1) substrate by the vacuum deposition technique. The Ti film thickness was typically 16 nm. Then the samples were annealed in air at 300 and 400 °C for 15 min, respectively. The deposition and annealing effects on the interface structure were investigated with Rutherford backscattering and channeling spectroscopy using 2 MeV He+ ion beam. After Ti deposition the minimum yield from the ZnO substrate increased from 2% to 7%. This suggests severe damage caused by deposition, i.e. the interface reaction between Ti and ZnO (even at room temperature). A significant amount of Zn (approximately 6.4 × 1016 atoms/cm2) moved onto the surface after post-annealing at 400 °C. Since Ti has a stronger tendency to react with O than Zn, it is expected that Ti reacts with substrate oxygen leaving behind free Zn atoms, which can easily migrate onto the surface. We discuss how the Ti/ZnO interface reaction in detail, and seek to find another good metallic contact for ZnO devices, which are attracting much attention recently for practical applications as well as scientific aspects.