Properties of ZnO/SiC/Si heterostructure

ZnO film was growed on Si substrate with a SiC buffer layer between them. The SiC layer was deposited on Si(100) substrate using MOCVD, and the ZnO film was deposited on the SiC buffer layer using direct current (DC) reactive sputtering. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were applied to measure the ZnO/SiC/Si sample and normal ZnO/Si sample. It shows that the ZnO film on SiC layer has higher crystal quality than that on Si substrate directly because the mismatch between ZnO and SiC is less than that between ZnO and Si. It reveals that using SiC buffer layer is an effectual method to grow high quality ZnO films on Si substrates.