Structural and Electronic Properties of Cu-doped ZnO Thin Films by RF Sputtering Method

The epitaxial Cu-doped ZnO and pure ZnO thin films were grown on Al2O3 (0001) substrates by RF sputtering method. The structures and crystallographic orientations were investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. From the XRD pattern, it is observed that peak positions shift towards higher $2{\theta}$ value with Cu doping. The ${\omega}$-scan measurements at the (0002) diffraction peak for these samples reveal that the full-widths at half-maxima (FWHMs) are about $0.017-0.019^{\circ}$, which indicate a good c-axis orientation of the Zn1-xCuxO films. From phi-scan, all of the Zn1-xCuxO films were epitaxially grown. EXAFS measurements also demonstrated that Cu incorporated into a Zn-atom position substitutionally. All the results confirmed that copper ion were well incorporated into the ZnO lattices by substituting Zn sites without changing the wurtzite structure and no secondary phase existed in Cu-doped ZnO thin films.