Electrical and microstructural properties of N+ ion-implanted ZnO and ZnO:Ag thin films Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • ZnO and Ag-doped ZnO films were grown on sapphire (0001) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition in vacuum both with and without oxygen at 700C. N+ ions were implanted in these films at room temperature and at 300C to a dose of 11014cm2 at 50 keV. Hall measurements indicate that ZnO films deposited in vacuum without oxygen and implanted with N+ at elevated temperatures are p-type with a hole-carrier concentration of 61016cm3, a mobility of 2.1cm2V1s1, and a resistivity of 50cm. Both scanning-electron microscopy and transmission-electron microscopy studies on the implanted films reveal microstructural differences in grain size, surface roughness, and the nature of defects, which may impact the activation of N atoms as p-type carriers. Low-energy ion implantation at elevated temperatures is shown to be an effective method to introduce p-type N dopants into ZnO, which minimizes defect clustering and promotes defect annihilation during implantation.

published proceedings

  • JOURNAL OF VACUUM SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY A

author list (cited authors)

  • Myers, M. A., Myers, M. T., Tsai, C., Lee, J. H., Lu, T., Shao, L., & Wang, H.

citation count

  • 2

publication date

  • May 2011