Influence of homo-buffer layers and post-deposition rapid thermal annealing upon atomic layer deposition grown ZnO at 100 °C with three-pulsed precursors per growth cycle

ZnO main epilayers are deposited with three-pulsed precursors in every growth cycle at 100 °C on various thicknesses of 300 °C-grown homo-buffer layers by atomic layer deposition (ALD) on sapphire substrate. Samples are treated without and with post-deposition rapid thermal annealing (RTA). Two different annealing temperatures 300 and 1000 °C are utilized in the ambience of oxygen for 5 min. Extremely low background electron concentration 8.4 × 1014 cm−3, high electron mobility 62.1 cm2/V s, and pronounced enhancement of near bandgap edge photoluminescence (PL) are achieved for ZnO main epilayer with sufficient thickness of buffer layer (200 ALD cycles) and post-deposition RTA at 1000 °C. Effective block and remove of thermally unstable mobile defects and other crystal lattice imperfections are the agents of quality promotion of ZnO thin film.