MORPHOLOGICAL AND STRUCTURAL CHARACTERIZATION OF RF MAGNETRON SPUTTERED ZnO THIN FILMS DEPOSITED AT DIFFERENT SUBSTRATE TEMPERATURES

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were deposited on glass substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering using pure zinc oxide target. The effect of substrate temperature on the structural and morphological characterization of ZnO films were systematically investigated by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The micro structural parameters, such as the lattice constant, crystallite size, stress and strain were calculated. All these films exhibited strong (002) diffraction peaks corresponding to hexagonal wurtzite structure. Atomic force microscopy studies showed that these films were very smooth with root mean square roughness of 3.64 nm. The ZnO films formed at substrate temperature of 473K exhibited lowest stress and dislocation density.