A comparative study of multi-thickness zinc telluride (ZNTE)‎ thin-film properties fabricated using a software controlled pld substrate holder system at different deposition temperatures

Abstract EN

Multi-thickness polycrystalline zinc telluride (ZnTe) thin films were successfully deposited on TEC15 glass substrates at different deposition temperatures ranging from 200C0 to 400C0 by a pulsed laser technique.

Two different sample sets of multi thicknesses (500nm, 750nm, and 1000nm) films have been fabricated on the same substrate using a designed software program to control a moving substrate holder that moves horizontally and vertically behind a metal blocker.

This study shows the possibility of fabricating different thickness layers on the same substrate in one fabrication process using moving substrate PLD holder during the deposition.

Atomic Force Microscopy indicated an improvement in the average crystallite size with the increase in film thickness and substrate deposition temperature.

As well as higher surface roughness Ra was indicated for thicker layers fabricated at high temperature.

XRD properties indicate that the fabricated samples are polycrystalline, and the films exhibit preferred orientation along the (111-cubic) direction, which is stronger at the highest substrate temperature and thicker layers.

This study discusses the strong dependency of crystalline quality on the deposition temperature and thin film thicknesses.