Blake L Stevens and Scott A Barnett

1. Self-Oriented ZnO Films Blake L Stevens and Scott A Barnett Northwestern University Materials Research Science & Engineering Center DMR-0520513 Microelectronic devices such as photovoltaics often provide best performance when the materials are grown on expensive single crystal substrates. The ability to obtain device-quality layers on inexpensive polycrystalline or amorphous substrate materials would be a major breakthrough for reducing device cost. We have demonstrated an initial step towards this goal, ZnO thin films that become self-oriented by depositing obliquely from dual sources. The as-deposited films exhibit only moderate alignment, as indicated by the bottom pole-figure scan, but after annealing at 1000oC the peak intensity doubled and the peak full width half maximum decreased by 60% (top pole figure). Partial {101} pole figures of as deposited (bottom) and annealed (top) ZnO thin films, showing a dramatic increase in peak intensity and decrease in peak width after annealing.