Increasing Polycrystalline Zinc Oxide Grain Size by Control of Film Preferential Orientation

Arthur Brian Aebersold, Duncan Alexander, Christophe Ballif, Lorenzo Fanni, Cécile Hébert, Aïcha Hessler-Wyser, Monica Morales Masis, Sylvain Nicolay
American Chemical Society, 2015
Article

Résumé

We investigate the structural evolution of polycrystalline zinc oxide films grown by low pressure metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The goal is to achieve larger grains-leading to higher charge carrier mobility from lower grain boundary density-by controlling the grain orientation during growth. The results are 2-fold. First we describe how the combination of deposition temperature and gas flow influences the nucleation and film thickening stages: low temperature and high gas flow favor a high nucleation density and the development of c-textured films, whereas high temperature and low gas flow lead to a lower nucleation density and a-textured films. Second we demonstrate how a fine control of the film preferential orientation at the different growth stages allows the fabrication of films with grains that are 25% larger, hence improving the carrier mobility with respect to the reference film.

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https://infoscience.epfl.ch/record/216546?ln=fr

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