Growth of ZnO on silicon (100) with oxygen background gas using femtosecond pulsed laser deposition

Undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) was successfully deposited on silicon (100) using femtosecond pulsed laser deposition (fs-PLD). A mode-locked 600 mW fs Ti:sapphire laser operating at a wavelength of 800 nm, 80 MHz repetition rate and <100 fs pulse duration was used to ablate ceramic ZnO target. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of samples showed that the features of the deposited ZnO and the deposition rate were affected by the oxygen gas pressure used (7x10-4 mbar, 2x10-2 mbar, 4x10-2 mbar). The spheroidal ZnO particles were found to be in nanometer to micrometer size range. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra of the sample using an oxygen gas of 7x10-4 mbar showed a c-axis orientation with (002) reflection of the deposited material.