We report on zinc oxide thin films grown by atomic layer deposition at a low temperature, which is compatible with a low thermal budget required for some novel electronic devices. By selecting appropriate precursors and process parameters, we were able to obtain films with controllable electrical parameters, from heavily $n$ -type to the resistive ones. Optimization of the growth process together with the low temperature deposition led to ZnO thin films, in which no defect-related photoluminescence bands are observed. Such films show anticorrelation between mobility and free-electron concentration, which indicates that low $n$ electron concentration is a result of lower number of defects rather than the self-compensation effect.

The energy distribution of the $P_b$ centers at the $\mathrm{Si}∕\mathrm{Si}{\mathrm{O}}_2$ interface has been determined using isothermal laplace deep level transient spectroscopy. For the (111) and (110) interface orientations, the distributions are similar and centered at $0.38\mathrm{eV}$ below the silicon conduction band. This is consistent with only $P_{b0}$ states being present. For the (100) orientation, two types of the interface states are observed: one similar to the (111) and (110) orientations while the other has a negative-$U$ character in which the emission rate versus surface potential dependence is qualitatively different from that observed for $P_{b0}$ and is presumed to be $P_{b1}$ .

This paper reports on ZnO/Ag Schottky junctions obtained by the low temperature atomic layer deposition process. Introducing the thin (from 1.25 to 7.5 nm) layer of hafnium dioxide between the ZnO layer and evaporated Ag Schottky contact improves the rectification ratio to about 10⁵ at 2V. For the ZnO/Ag junctions without the HfO₂ interlayer, the rectification ratio is only 10². We assign this effect to the passivation of ZnO surface accumulation layer that is reported for ZnO thin films.