Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
Zinc oxide (ZnO) films were deposited on polyimide-based substrates by pulsed laser deposition. The ZnO films and the underlying polymer layers were studied using Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. FTIR measurements in structurally well-characterized samples exhibiting all X-ray reflections of crystalline hexagonal ZnO show absorbance bands around 405 cm-1(Zn-O stretching vibration) and 1110 cm-1 (in-plane C-H vibrations on aromatic rings of polyimide). Observed shifts in both absorption features as a function of deposition temperatures can probably be attributed to thermal stress in the layers. PL measurements showed broad spectra centered around 3.35 eV from ZnO excitonic emission and a broader PL band from 2.7 to 3.1 eV defect complex emissions. The appearance of these peaks was consistent for depositions of ZnO on non-organic substrates, which indicates that the integration of ZnO thin films on polymer based substrate preserved the characteristic optical properties of ZnO.