Surface planarization of ZnO thin film for optoelectronic applications

In this paper, surface morphology and optical properties are investigated to find the optimum microstructure of zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films deposited by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering. To achieve a high transmittance and a low resistivity, we examined various film deposition conditions. The transmittance and surface morphology of ZnO thin films were measured by an ultraviolet (UV)–visible spectrometer and atomic force microscopy (AFM), respectively. In order to improve the surface quality of ZnO thin films, we performed chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) by change of process parameters, and compared the optical properties of polished ZnO thin films. As an experimental result, we were able to obtain good uniformity and improved transmittance efficiency by the CMP technique.