Study on the influence of annealing temperature on mechanical property and microstructure of Cr doped ZnO films

The 3 at. % Cr doped ZnO films were deposited on glass substrate by radio frequency magnetron sputtering method, followed by annealing process with temperature 300℃ ∼ 500℃ for 25 minutes. And the influence of annealing temperature on mechanical property and microstructure of Cr doped ZnO films was investigated. The microstructure analysis result showed that the crystallization direction of Cr doped ZnO films is along (002) and the growth along (002) plane becomes more and more obvious with annealing temperature increasing. However, the surface roughness of the films becomes greater with annealing temperature increasing. The mechanical analysis result revealed that the dislocation atomic energy can be decreased due to the grain size being larger with annealing temperature increasing and then the hardness of Cr doped ZnO films is thereupon great increasingly, but it has no significant effect on the Young modulus. Moreover, the wear resistance and toughness of the films are both increasing with annealing temperature increasing, suggesting that the annealing treatment plays an important role in improving the anti-plastic deformation ability of Cr doped ZnO films. (authors)