Integration and structural analysis of strain relaxed bi-epitaxial zinc oxide(0001) thin film with silicon(100) using titanium nitride buffer layer

摘要

Epitaxial growth of c-plane ZnO(0001) has been demonstrated on the Si(001) by using TiN as an intermediate buffer layer. Because of different out of plane symmetry of the substrate (Si/TiN) and the film (ZnO), two orientations of ZnO domains were obtained and the ZnO film growth is of bi-epitaxial nature. The ZnO thin film was observed to be nearly strain relaxed from X-ray and Raman measurements. The Interface between the ZnO and TiN was investigated by transmission electron microscopy, and atomic arrangement has been modeled to understand the crystallographic orientation and structure of the domain/grain boundaries. Reaction at ZnO/TiN interface at higher growth temperature causing zinc titanate formation was observed. The grain boundary structure between the observed domains investigated by scanning transmission electron microscopy, revealed the ZnO(0001) planes to be contiguous across the grain boundary which is significant from the perspective of conduction electron scattering. In this configuration, the TiN (being electrically conductive) can be effectively used as an electrode for novel vertically integrated device applications (like light emitting diodes) directly on Si(100) substrate.