摘要
Structural characteristics of the ZnO epitaxial films grown on c-plane sapphire by the atomic layer deposition method were thoroughly studied. The in-plane axes of the c-plane oriented ZnO layers are predominantly aligned with that of the sapphire substrate, yielding the relationship of {1010} zno || {1010}Al 2 O 2 The minor orientation with a 30° in-plane twist configuration, that is, {1010} Zno || {1120} Al 2 O 3 . which is more commonly observed in ZnO films grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition, pulsed laser deposition, and other methods, only amounts to less than 3% and can be eliminated by thermal annealing. The structure of the ZnO epi-films exhibits significantly improvement upon thermal annealing, and intrinsic types of basal plane stacking faults are the predominant structural defects in the ZnO after thermal treatment. The effect of post growth thermal treatment is reported in this work. © 2009 American Chemical Society.