Nucleation and Growth Modes of ALD ZnO

The initial phases of the ALD growth of ZnO have been examined. It is shown that ZnO exhibits an island-like growth on Si, layer-by-layer on GaN, whereas on sapphire, the growth mode can be tuned by the deposition temperature. A new method for depositing ultrathin smooth polycrystalline films is presented. The growth rates on different substrates and at different deposition temperatures were analyzed, and the possibility of epitaxial growth was also examined.