Single crystalline ZnO films grown on lattice-matched ScAlMgO4(0001) substrates

Lattice-matched (Δa/a=0.09%) ScAlMgO4(0001) substrates were employed to grow single crystalline quality ZnO films by laser molecular-beam epitaxy. Extremely smooth surface represented by atomically flat terraces and half unit cell (0.26 nm) high steps and extremely small orientation fluctuations both in-plane (<0.02°) and out-of-plane (<0.01°) are achieved. The films have high mobility (∼100 cm2/V s) together with low residual carrier concentration (∼1015 cm−3). Excellent optical properties, including a clear doublet of A and B exciton peaks in absorption spectra, were also observed. These features could not be simultaneously achieved for ZnO films grown on sapphire(0001) having a large lattice mismatch (Δa/a=18%).