Temperature dependence of ZnO thin film growth and its application to self-powered fabrics

Zinc oxide thin films are becoming increasingly popular for their wide range of properties and the ability to deposit these films on organic substrates for applications such as biotemplating, OLEDs, or deposition on fabrics for functionalization purposes including power generation from the flexing and deformation of wearable textiles. However, since many fabrics and other organic substrates can not survive the typically high temperatures of thin film growth, it is important to characterize and understand the dependence of the properties of these films as a function of temperature deposition and subsequent thermal treatments. We report on the properties of zinc oxide thin films grown by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and the dependence of surface roughness, film stress, surface energy and crystalline structure on deposition temperature.