Effects of Zn ion implantation and post-thermal annealing on ZnO thin films

Zn ions of dose 1×1017 cm-2 were implanted at 56 keV into ZnO films deposited by sol-gel process. After ion implantation, the as-implanted sample was annealed in argon ambient at different temperatures from 500~900 ℃. The effects of ion implantation and annealing on the structural and optical properties of the ZnO films were investigated by X-ray diffraction patterns, photoluminescence and optical absorption spectra. Measurement results showed that all diffraction peaks were recovered by annealing at 700 ℃. The absorption edge were observed to have a continuous blueshift with increasing annealing temperature when it was less than 600 ℃, while the absorption edge was found to have a gradual redshift with increasing annealing temperature when it exceeded 600 ℃. Both NBE and DLE were enh