Growth of a-plane ZnO thin films on LaAlO3(100) substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

ZnO(1 1 (2) over bar 0) thin films were successfully grown on LaAlO3 (lanthanum aluminate) (10 0) substrate by atmospheric pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. X-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy showed that ZnO films formed at 450 degrees C were composed of almost all (1 1 (2) over bar 0) oriented grains while (0 0 0 2) oriented ZnO grains started to appear at temperature above 550 degrees C. The a-plane ZnO films consisted of two types of domains with their c-axis perpendicular to each other due to LaAlO3(1 0 0) symmetry with low lattice mismatch along < 1 1 0 >. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.