Effect of annealing on electrical properties of radio-frequency-sputtered ZnO films

We report on the electrical properties of ZnO films and devices grown on different substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. The films grown on c-plane sapphire were annealed in the range 800–1,000°C. The electron concentration increased with annealing temperature reaching 1.4×10¹⁹ cm^?3 for 1,000°C. Mobility also increased, however, reaching its maximum value 64.4 cm²/V · sec for 950°C anneal. High-performance Schottky diodes were fabricated on ZnO films grown on n-type 6H-SiC by depositing Au/Ni(300/300 Å). After annealing at 900°C, the leakage current (at ?5 V reverse bias) decreased from 2.2 × 10^?7 A to ～5.0 × 10^?8 A after annealing at 900°C, the forward current increased by a factor of 2, and the ideality factor decreased from 1.5 to 1.03. The ZnO films were also grown on p-type 6H-SiC, and n-ZnO/p-SiC heterostructure diodes were fabricated. The p-n diode performance increased dramatically after annealing at 950°C. The leakage current decreased from 2.0×10^?4 A to 3.0×10^?7 A at ?10 V reverse bias, and the forward current increased slightly from 2.7 mA to 3.9 mA at 7 V forward bias; the ideality factor of the annealed diode was estimated as 2.2, while that for the as-grown sample was considerably higher.