High Quality ZnO Thin Films on InP Substrates Prepared by Radio Frequency Magnetron Sputtering. I. Material Study

High quality ZnO thin films were deposited onto InP substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. It was found that the characteristics of ZnO film depend on deposition parameters, and a detailed study was performed. By adjusting these parameters, we obtained a ZnO thin film with an extremely sharp x-ray diffraction peak with a 0.183° full width at half-maximum. The resistivity of the deposited ZnO film is 10¹⁰ Ω cm and its refractive index is close to that of single crystal ZnO. These results indicate that the quality of these ZnO thin films is acceptable for the fabrication of a surface acoustic wave device on InP substrates.