Growth behavior on initial layer of ZnO:P layers grown by magnetron sputtering with controlled by $O_2$ partial pressure

The superior properties of ZnO such as high exciton binding energy, high thermal and chemical stability, low growth temperature and possibility of wet etching process in ZnO have great interest for applications ranging from optoelectronics to chemical sensor. Particularly, vertically well-aligned ZnO nanorods on large areas with good optical and structural properties are of special interest for the fabrication of electronic and optical nanodevices. Currently, low-dimensional ZnO is synthesized by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), thermal evaporation, and sol.gel growth. Recently, our group has been reported about achievement the growth of Ga-doped ZnO nanorods using ZnO seed layer on p-type Si substrate by RF magnetron sputtering system at high rf power and high growth temperature. However, the crystallinity of nanorods deteriorates due to lattice mismatch between nanorods and Si substrate. Also, in the growth of oxide using sputtering, the oxygen flow ratio relative to argon gas flow is an important growth parameter and significantly affects the structural properties. In this study, Phosphorus (P) doped ZnO nanorods were grown on c-sapphire substrates without seed layer by radio frequency magnetron sputtering with various argon/oxygen gas ratios. The layer change films into nanorods with decreasing oxygen partial pressure. The diameter and length of vertically well-aligned on the c-sapphire substrate are in the range of 51-103 nm and about 725 nm, respectively. The photoluminescence spectra of the nanorods are dominated by intense near band-edge emission with weak deep-level emission.