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Tilted domain growth of metalorganic chemical vapor (MOCVD)-grown ZnO(0001) on α-Al2O3(0001)

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Abstract

ZnO grown on α-Al2O3(0001) generally possesses an orientation such that α-Al2O3(0001) is parallel to ZnO(0001) and two in-plane domains nucleate, so that α-Al2O3[11¯20] is parallel to ZnO[11¯20] and/or α-Al2O3[11¯20] is parallel to ZnO[10¯10]. In this paper, we report a new growth mode for ZnO grown on α-Al2O3(0001) using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). We find that α-Al2O3[11¯20] is parallel to ZnO[10¯10], but the (0001) plane of ZnO is tilted relative to the (0001) plane of α-Al2O3 such that ZnO(0001) is almost parallel to the α-Al2O3(¯1104) plane. This orientation reduces the extent of lattice mismatch. The interface between ZnO and α-Al2O3 is abrupt and possesses periodic dislocations.

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Acknowledgments

The research described in this paper was performed in the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a national scientific user facility sponsored by the United States Department of Energy’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research and located at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), which is operated by Battelle for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) under Contract No. DE-AC06-76RLO-1830. The authors thank Dr. Scott Chambers for reading the first draft of the manuscript and critical comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, 99352, USA

    C.M. Wang, L.V. Saraf & P. Nachimuthu

  2. Energy and Environment Directorate, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, 99352, USA

    T.L. Hubler

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  1. C.M. Wang
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  2. L.V. Saraf
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  3. T.L. Hubler
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  4. P. Nachimuthu
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Correspondence to C.M. Wang.

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Wang, C., Saraf, L., Hubler, T. et al. Tilted domain growth of metalorganic chemical vapor (MOCVD)-grown ZnO(0001) on α-Al2O3(0001). Journal of Materials Research 23, 13–17 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2008.0026

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1557/JMR.2008.0026

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