Deposition and characterization of ZnO thin films on GaAs and Pt/GaAs substrates

Abstract This work reports the deposition and characterization of piezoelectric ZnO thin films on semi-insulating GaAs substrates for the fabrication of bulk acoustic waves sensors. ZnO films are deposited at 350 °C and low deposition rate using reactive radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The use of a Pt bottom electrode, between ZnO and GaAs, with and without Ti buffer layer, as well as the effect of the substrate crystallographic orientation are investigated. The characterization of the deposited films is performed to determine the optimal parameters for obtaining high-quality films and ZnO residual conductivity. ZnO films are textured along the c-axis for all GaAs cuts. The highest st…