ZnO thin films deposited by capillaritron ion beam sputtering deposition

ZnO thin films were deposited by capillaritron ion beam sputtering deposition. The crystalline quality, stoichiometry and photoluminescence properties of as-deposited and annealed ZnO thin films were studied. The as-deposited ZnO films show no preferred crystallographic orientations while annealed films exhibit a strong single ZnO (0 0 2) diffraction peak at 34.50°. The stoichiometry of ZnO films were found to be dependent on both beam energy and annealing conditions that the atomic percent ratio of Zn/O can be controlled between 0.95 and 1.10. ZnO films deposited with 4 keV ion beam and annealed at 800 °C in oxygen shows the lowest defect related deep level visible emission, while 80% of oxygen atoms are still located in fully oxidized stoichiometric ZnO matrixes.