Production of high-quality ZnO films by the two-step annealing method

In this study, a two-step annealing method is advanced to produce high-quality ZnO films with excellent structural, electrical, and optical properties. The effects of oxygen and nitrogen annealing on the properties of undoped ZnO films are reversible to each other and are attributed to the creation and annihilation of extrinsic trap states of antisite oxygen O_Zn and oxygen vacancies V_O, which result from the chemisorption and desorption of oxygen, respectively. Moreover, annealing in nitrogen causes slight nitrogen incorporation, subsequently increasing the resistivity and inducing compressive stress in the film. The key to this two-step method is to keep the chemisorption and desorption of oxygen in equilibrium. Due to the similarity of annealing ambient with the growth condition, this process can be transplanted and employed in the in situ preparation of high-quality ZnO epilayers.