H2O beams for zinc oxide film growth produced by a Pt-catalyzed H2–O2 reaction at various divergent aperture angles of a de Laval nozzle

High-energy H2O beams generated by a de Laval nozzle, meant for the growth of zinc oxide thin films through chemical vapor deposition, were assessed based on compressible flow theory at various divergent aperture angles. In this process, high temperature H2O was generated by a catalytic reaction between H2 and O2 on Pt nanoparticles and effused through the nozzle into the reaction zone. The theoretical beam temperature distributions, reduced scaling parameters and mean cluster sizes of the H2O beams generated at angles between 50 and 90° were evaluated. The reduced scaling parameters of the H2O beams for all angles were calculated to be less than 200 and the mean cluster sizes were estimated to be less than one irrespective of the divergent aperture angle of the nozzle, suggesting that clusters are not formed in the H2O beam in our apparatus. The crystallinity and electrical properties of the zinc oxide films grown using various divergent aperture angles were also evaluated.