Growth of cubic MgxZn1−xO alloy films by electron beam evaporation

We report the growth of cubic MgxZn1−xO alloy thin films on quartz by electron beam evaporation. It can be found that all the samples have sharp absorption edges by the absorption measurements. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate the MgxZn1−xO films are cubic phase with preferred orientation along the (1 1 1) direction. Energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS) demonstrates that the Mg concentration in MgxZn1−xO films is much higher than the ceramic target used, and the composition can be tuned in a small scope by varying the substrate temperature and the beam electric current. The reasons of this phenomenon are also discussed.