Electrical and microstructural properties of N+ ion-implanted ZnO and ZnO:Ag thin films
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ZnO and Ag-doped ZnO films were grown on sapphire (0001) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition in vacuum both with and without oxygen at 700 C. N+ ions were implanted in these films at room temperature and at 300 C to a dose of 1 1014 cm-2 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 6 1016 cm-3, a mobility of 2.1 cm2 V-1 s-1, and a resistivity of 50 cm. 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. 2011 American Vacuum Society.