ZnO thin films produced by filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique

High quality c-axis oriented ZnO thin films have been successfully deposited on silicon substrates using filtered cathodic vacuum arc (FCVA) technique. Two deposition temperatures, namely room temperature and 420 °C, were studied. The films were characterised by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). XRD revealed that the ZnO films exhibited (0 0 2) orientation. An amorphous layer between the substrate and the ZnO film was observed in both samples using TEM. Both samples showed c-axis oriented ZnO columns. However, for the ZnO thin film deposited at room temperature, the c-axis oriented ZnO columns were observed to grow on a layer of randomly oriented nanocrystals.