Growth of a-plane ZnO thin films on LaAlO3(1 0 0) substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

ZnO(1 1 2¯ 0) thin films were successfully grown on LaAlO3 (lanthanum aluminate) (1 0 0) substrate by atmospheric pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy showed that ZnO films formed at 450 °C were composed of almost all (1 1 2¯ 0) oriented grains while (0 0 0 2) oriented ZnO grains started to appear at temperature above 550 °C. The a-plane ZnO films consisted of two types of domains with their c-axis perpendicular to each other due to LaAlO3(1 0 0) symmetry with low lattice mismatch along 〈1 1 0〉.