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ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2017 Aug 09;9(31):26143-26150. doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b04127. Epub 2017 Jul 27.

Abundant Acceptor Emission from Nitrogen-Doped ZnO Films Prepared by Atomic Layer Deposition under Oxygen-Rich Conditions.

ACS applied materials & interfaces

E Guziewicz, E Przezdziecka, D Snigurenko, D Jarosz, B S Witkowski, P Dluzewski, W Paszkowicz

Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences , Al. Lotników 32/46, PL-02668 Warsaw, Poland.

PMID: 28707878 DOI: 10.1021/acsami.7b04127

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped and undoped ZnO films were grown by thermal atomic layer deposition (ALD) under oxygen-rich conditions. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra reveal a dominant donor-related emission at 3.36 eV and characteristic acceptor-related emissions at 3.302 and 3.318 eV. Annealing at 800 °C in oxygen atmosphere leads to conversion of conductivity from n- to p-type, which is reflected in photoluminescence spectra. Annealing does not increase any acceptor-related emission in the undoped sample, while in the ZnO:N it leads to a considerable enhancement of the photoluminescence at 3.302 eV. The high resolution cathodoluminescence cross-section images show different spatial distribution of the donor-related and the acceptor-related emissions, which complementarily contribute to the overall luminescence of the annealed ZnO:N material. Similar area of both emissions indicates that the acceptor luminescence comes neither from the grain boundaries nor from stacking faults. Moreover, in ZnO:N the acceptor-emission regions are located along the columns of growth, which shows a perspective to achieve a ZnO:N material with homogeneous acceptor conductivity at least at the micrometer scale.

Keywords: acceptor doping; atomic layer deposition; luminescence; nitrogen; zinc oxide

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