Structural property of m-plane ZnO epitaxial film grown on LaAlO3 (1Â 1Â 2) substrate

The microstructure of m-plane (1 0 1¯ 0) ZnO grown on LaAlO3 (1 1 2) (LAO (1 1 2)) substrate by pulsed laser deposition method has been investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). XRD shows that ZnO grown on LAO(1 1 2) appears to be oriented in pure m-plane. TEM electron diffraction patterns in cross section illustrate that m-plane ZnO is in epitaxy with LAO (1 1 2), and the orientation relationships are determined to be [1 2¯ 1 0]ZnO//[1¯ 1¯ 1]LAO and [0 0 0 1]ZnO//[1¯ 1 0]LAO. Also, TEM shows that most of threading dislocations (TDs) in a-type are mainly distributed as wiggle-like lines. From the observations in plan-view TEM, the densities of TDs and basal stacking faults are approximately estimated to be 5.1×1010 cm−2 and 4.3×105 cm−1, respectively.