Detection of zinc blende phase by the pulsed laser photoacoustic technique in ZnO thin films deposited via pulsed laser deposition

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) was used to grow ZnO thin films on corning glass and silicon substrates at different oxygen pressures (1 y 10 mTorr). The structural analysis of the films was performed by X-ray diffraction and pulsed laser photoacoustic (PLPA) techniques. Both methods were employed to identify the minority zinc blende phase in the films. The relative difference between the structural changes detected in the films with the temperature increases was statistically analyzed. It was found that regardless of the substrate and the oxygen pressure used for the growth, the films exhibit a phase transition at 310 °C, which corresponds to the transformation of zinc blende structure to hexagonal wurtzite. The results demonstrate that the zinc blende phase in the films is present not only on cubic substrates but also on glass, and confirm that PLPA technique is a very sensitive method for the detection of minority phase changes.