Influence of annealing temperature on the structural, optical and mechanical properties of ALD-derived ZnO thin films

► ZnO thin films grown on Si(1 1 1) substrates by ALD and followed by RTA. ► XRD shows that the annealed ZnO films had a predominant (0 0 2) orientation. ► PL show manifest enhanced in intrinsic band edge UV emission of annealed ZnO films. ► Hardness of annealed ZnO films follows satisfactorily with the Hall-Petch equation.