Growth and characterization of ZnO thin ®lms grown by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO thin ®lms on (0 0 1) sapphire substrates have been deposited by pulsed laser deposition technique using a Nd:YAG laser with the wavelength of 355 nm at an oxygen pressure of 350 mTorr. In order to investigate the effect of the deposition conditions on the properties of ZnO thin ®lms, the experiment has been performed at various substrate temperatures in the range of 200±7008C. According to XRD, (0 0 2) textured ZnO ®lms of high crystalline quality have been obtained by pulsed laser deposition technique. However, the intensity of UV emission is mostly dependent upon the stoichiometry of ZnO ®lms, rather than the crystalline quality. # 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved