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Mechanical milling and subsequent annealing in air at temperatures between 210 and 1200°C have been carried out on high purity ZnO powder to study the defect generation and recovery in the material. Lowering of average grain size (from 76±1to22±0.5nm) as a result of milling has been estimated from the broadening of x-ray lines. Substantial grain growth in the milled sample occurs above 425°C annealing temperature. Positron annihilation lifetime (PAL) analysis of the samples shows a distinct decrease of the average lifetime of positrons very near the same temperature zone. As indicated from both x-ray diffraction (XRD) and PAL results, high temperature (>700°C) annealed samples have a better crystallinity (or lower defect concentration) than even the nonmilled ZnO. In contrast, the measured optical band gap of the samples (from absorption spectroscopy) does not confirm lowering of defects with high temperature annealing. Thermally generated defects at oxygen sites cause significant modification of the optical absorption; however, they are not efficient traps for positrons. Different thermal stages of generation and recovery of cationic as well as anionic defects in granular ZnO are discussed in the light of XRD, PAL, and optical absorption studies.

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This paper revisits positron scattering from molecular hydrogen, in an attempt to provide accurate total cross-section data against which theoretical calculations might be benchmarked. The present data were measured over the energy range 0.1-50 eV and, where possible, are compared to results from previous experiments and calculations. Agreement with the earlier data was typically very good at energies above 10 eV but becomes progressively more marginal as we go to lower energies. None of the current theories quantitatively reproduce our measurements over the entire energy range, although at a qualitative level the main features driving the scattering dynamics are apparent.

Defect characterization in 1.2 MeV Ar8+ irradiated polycrystalline ZnO has been carried out by x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) along with electrical resistivity, and photoluminescence (PL) measurements at room temperature (RT). Interestingly, irradiation with the initial fluence (1×1015 ions/cm2) changes the color of the sample from white to orange while the highest irradiation fluence (5×1016 ions/cm2) makes it dark reddish brown that appears as black. XRD study reveals no significant change in the average grain size of the samples with irradiation fluence. Increase in surface roughness due to sputtering is clearly visible in SEM with highest fluence of irradiation. RT PL spectrum of the unirradiated sample shows intense ultraviolet (UV) emission (∼3.27 eV) and less prominent defect level emissions (2–3 eV). The overall emission is largely quenched due to initial irradiation fluence. Increasing the fluence of Ar beam further, UV emission is enhanced along with prominent defect level emissions. Remarkably, the resistivity of the irradiated sample with highest fluence is reduced by four orders of magnitude compared to that of the unirradiated sample. This is due to an increase in donor concentration as well as their mobility induced by high fluence of irradiation. Change in color in the irradiated samples indicates dominant presence of oxygen vacancies. It is now well known that oxygen vacancies are deep donors in ZnO. So oxygen vacancies, in principle, are not the source of conductivity in ZnO at RT. Simultaneous evolution of coloration and conductivity in ZnO, as is seen in this study, indicate that oxygen vacancies strongly influence the stability of shallow donors, presumably zinc interstitial related (highly mobile Zn interstitials also need to form defect pair/complex to be stable), which act as major source of carriers. Such a contention is in conformity with most recent theoretical calculations.