Title from PDF of title page, viewed on January 27, 2017Dissertation advisor: Jerzy M. WrobelVitaIncludes bibliographical references (pages 90-95)Thesis (Ph.D.)--Department of Physics and Astronomy and Department of Chemistry. University of Missouri--Kansas City, 2016Pulsed ultraviolet light from a XeF excimer laser was used to grow thin films of
zinc oxide and tin dioxide on (111) p-type silicon wafers within a versatile high
vacuum laser deposition system. This pulsed laser deposition system was
self-designed and self-built. Parameters such as pressure, target temperature, and
distance from the target to the substrate can be adjusted in the system. Scanning
electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction
spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy and ellipsometry were used to analyze the
structures and properties of ZnO and SnO2 thin films. The critical temperature
required to fabricate a crystalline ZnO thin film by pulsed laser deposition was found
and has been confirmed. For the SnO2 thin film, the critical temperature required to
generate a crystalline structure could not be found because of the temperature limit of
the substrate heater used in the experiment. In SnO2 thin films, thermal annealing has
been used to convert into crystalline structure with (110), (101) and (211) orientations.
After fabricating the amorphous SnO2 thin films, they were put into an oven with
specific temperatures to anneal them. The minimum annealing temperature range was
found for converting the amorphous SnO2 thin films into SnO2 thin films with a
crystalline structure. Thermal annealing has also been applied to some amorphous ZnO thin films which were fabricated under the critical temperature required to
produce crystalline ZnO thin films. The minimum annealing temperature range for
amorphous ZnO thin films was found and only one orientation (002) shown after
annealing. Laser annealing technology has also been applied for converting both
amorphous ZnO and SnO2 thin films, and results show that this method was not well
suited for this attempt. ZnO thin films and SnO2 thin films with a crystalline structure have inportant
widely used in industry, for example, application in devices such as solar cells and
UV or blue-light-emitting devices. The aim of this research is to help improving the
manufacturing process of ZnO and SnO2 thin films.Introduction -- Background -- Data collection and analysi