Gherendi Florin

The pulsed electron beam ablation deposition method (PED) was used for growing In2O3 and ZnO transparent oxide thin films with a metal strip placed inside the ablation plasma plume as mechanical obstacle. Pure oxygen was used as working gas. The influence of the obstacle on the properties of the ablation plasma was studied with an ion probe and by resistivity measurements on the deposited thin films respectively. A 16 times reduction of the ion density was evidenced by the ion probe behind the obstacle. The film resistivity varies from 2·103 Ω·cm in the obstacle shadow to 3·10−4 Ω·cm in the adjacent (non-shadowed) regions for In2O3 films, while for ZnO films the variation is from 0.6 Ω·cm to 6·10−3 Ω·cm. The increase of the resistivity of the film grown behind the obstacle as compared to the adjacent regions was explained by a reduction of the concentration of oxygen vacancies due to a relatively larger contribution of the oxygen incorporated in the film from the working gas in the lower plasma density region behind the obstacle. The smaller variation in the case of ZnO target was explained by the increased scattering of Zn ions behind the obstacle in comparison to the In ions, due to their smaller mass.