Oxygen Gas-Timing Control for Variety Properties of Sputtered-ZnO

In this report, we present sputtered zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films grown with different argon (Ar) and oxygen (O2) gas-timing sequence. Metallic zinc (Zn) with 5N-purity was used as a sputtering target, while Ar and O2 of 6N-purity were used as the bombard and reactive gases, respectively. The crystalline orientation, surface morphology, chemical composition, optical and electrical properties of deposited ZnO thin films were determined by XRD,AFM and UV-VIS measurement, respectively. The XRD result implied that deposition ZnO thin films at different O2 gas-timing control corresponded to the (002) plane of hexagonal ZnO structure at 2Ө = 34.4◦. Furthermore, when the reactive time of O2 was increased, the transmittance of ZnO thin films exhibited the energy gap increase from ~2.95 to ~3.18 eV, whereas the surface roughness was found to decrease. Finally, ZnO thin films were oxidized after the deposition.