  Crystalline wurtzite zinc oxide (w-ZnO) can be used as a wide band gap
semiconductor for light emitting devices and for transparent or high
temperature electronics. The use of amorphous zinc oxide (a-ZnO) can be an
advantage in these applications. In this paper we report on X-ray amorphous
a-ZnOx thin films (~500 nm) deposited at cryogenic temperatures by reactive
magnetron sputtering. The substrates were cooled by a nitrogen flow through the
copper substrate holder during the deposition. The films were characterized by
X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman, infrared, UV-Vis-NIR spectroscopies, and
ellipsometry. The a-ZnOx films on glass and Ti substrates were obtained at the
substrate holder temperature of approximately -100 oC. New vibration bands at
201, 372, and 473 cm-1 as well as O-H stretch and bend absorption bands in the
a-ZnOx films were detected by FTIR spectroscopy. Raman spectra showed
characteristic ZnO2 peaks at 386 and 858 cm-1 attributed to the peroxide ion
O22- stretching and libration modes, respectively. In addition, the films
contain neutral and ionized O2 and O2- species. The a-ZnOx films are highly
transparent in the visible light range (approx. 87%) and exhibit a refractive
index of 1.68 at 2.25 eV (550 nm). An optical band gaps is 4.65 eV with an
additional band edge absorption feature at 3.50 eV. It has been shown that the
deposition on actively cooled substrates can be a suitable technique to obtain
low temperature phases that cannot be deposited at room temperature.
