Optimised pulsed laser deposition of ZnO thin films on transparent conducting substrates

The growth of polycrystalline zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on indium tin oxide (ITO) is reported. For the first time the influence of deposition temperature over an extended range (50–650 °C) is investigated on ITO. We describe the role of temperature on the optical and crystalline properties of the deposited films, of 120–250 nm thickness. Additionally, the effect of the background oxygen pressure is reported. Under all of the deposition conditions highly textured c-axis oriented, transparent (>85%) and low roughness (RMS < 10 nm) ZnO films are formed. Growth temperatures ≥450 °C lead to the highest degree of crystallinity and film quality with measured full width half maximum (FWHM) of X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks as small as 0.14°2θ. XRD measurements of films grown at <350 °C show a shift in the (002) diffraction peak to lower 2θ values, indicating that the deposited films are oxygen deficient. Increasing the oxygen pressure results in the preparation of stoichiometric films at temperatures as low as 50 °C. We demonstrate that in addition to forming high quality ZnO, the optical and electronic properties of ITO can be preserved—even at high temperature—presenting a methodology for preparing highly crystalline ZnO on ITO over a temperature window significantly larger than that of previous literature reports. Furthermore, the low temperature processing opens up the possibility of deposition on a wide range of substrates, especially those unsuitable for exposure to high temperatures.