Srivastava, A. K. and -, Praveen and Arora, M. and Gupta, S. K . and Chakraborty , B. R. and Chandra, S. and Toyoda, S. and Bahadur, H. (2010) Nanostructural Features and Optical Performance of RF Magnetron Sputtered ZnO Thin Films. Journal of Materials Science and Technology , 26 (11). pp. 986-990. ISSN 1005-0302

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Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films were grown on silicon substrate by RF (radio frequency) magnetron sputtering. Surface topography of these films exhibited a nanostructured granular appearance with the size of individual grains between 50 to 100 nm. Corresponding cross-sectional electron micrographs revealed columnar grains in the form of aggregated nanorods/wires with length of about 500 nm, similar to the thickness of these thin films of ZnO nucleated and grown vertically on the silicon substrate. High resolution lattice scale imaging using high resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) elucidated the single crystalline 10¯10 planes of hexagonal-ZnO constituting the columnar grains with the individual nanorod diameter between 3 and 4 nm. The photoluminescence measurements showed the prominent emission peak at around 460 nm for the blue band, normally attributed to intrinsic defects in particular interstitial zinc (Zn). These films were further characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Raman spectroscopy and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) to evaluate various aspects on preferred growth orientations, band structures and vibrational modes originated in such fascinating nano-grained thin films of ZnO. The present investigations inferred that these films are advantageous in various potential applications for fabricating nano-scaled devices.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to M/s Elsevier B.V.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Electron microscopy; Nanomaterials; ZnO; RF sputtering; Photoluminescence; Spectroscopy; Electron paramagnetic resonance
Subjects:	Materials Science Metallurgy & Metallurgical Engineering
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
Depositing User:	Ms Neetu Chandra
Date Deposited:	11 Jun 2012 12:16
Last Modified:	11 Jun 2012 12:16
URI:	http://npl.csircentral.net/id/eprint/251

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