Densities and Surface Reaction Probabilities of Oxygen and Nitrogen Atoms During Sputter Deposition of ZnInON on ZnO

We report densities and surface reaction probabilities of O and N atoms during sputter deposition of ZnInON films on ZnO templates, measured via vacuum ultraviolet absorption spectroscopy. O density is almost constant of 4.5 × 10
¹¹
cm
^-3
irrespective of O
₂
gas flow rate, whereas N density increases sharply from 2.7×10
¹¹
cm
^-3
for O
₂
gas sccm to 7.7 × 10
¹¹
cm
^-3
for 0.6 sccm and it increases gradually 10
¹¹
cm
^-3
for 5 sccm. The surface reaction probability β
_O
of O atoms on ZnInON increases significantly from 0.022 to 0.404 with increasing O
₂
gas flow rate from 0 to 5 sccm, whereas β
_N
of N atoms on ZnInON decreases slightly from 0.018 to 0.006. The stoichiometric chemical compositional ratio of ZnInON films with [Zn]/([Zn] + [In]) = [O]/([O] + [N]) = 94% is obtained at β
_O
= 0.404 of O atoms. This stoichiometric compositional ZnInON films grow coherently on ZnO templates, while nonstoichiometric films do not. The stoichiometric chemical composition is the key to coherent growth of ZnInON films.