LASER ANNEALING OF ZnO THIN FILMS.

Thermal furnace and CO//2 laser annealing experiments on ZnO thin films are reported. Both the refractive index of the films and the effective refractive index of guided optical modes increase with thermal furnace annealing. However, the losses of guided modes increase, too. Laser annealing performed by scanning with a CO//2 laser beam does not affect refractive index but produces a marked decrease for guided mode losses.