Influence of deposition conditions of ZnO thin films on their photonic properties

The effects of deposition conditions (especially lateral position against target during deposition and deposition temperature) on optical properties and structure are presented. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis showed that all the films were polycrystalline with hexagonal structure and preferred orientation in [001] direction perpendicular to the substrate surface. Micro-structure properties as crystallite size and micro-strains were not too influenced by deposition conditions and values of crystallites were evaluated in tens of nanometers and micro-strains were about 10-2. Film thicknesses obtained from transmittance spectra decreased more than two times with increased lateral position of the samples against the target. Dispersion of the spectral refractive index was observed depending on the sample position in deposition chamber. Smaller dispersion was observed in series containing more redundant oxygen in their structure.