Structural, electrical, and optical properties of p-type ZnO thin films with Ag dopant

Abstract

p -type ZnO films have been fabricated on a (0001) Al2O3 substrate, using Ag2O as a silver dopant by pulsed laser deposition. The structural property of those films is systematically characterized by observing the shift of (0002) peak to investigate the substitution of Ag+ for Zn+. Narrow deposition temperature for Ag-doped p-type ZnO films has been obtained in the range of 200–250°C with the hole concentration of 4.9×1016–6.0×1017cm−3. A neutral acceptor bound exciton has been clearly observed by photoluminescence emitted at 3.317eV in Ag-doped p-type ZnO thin films.

Effect of Deposition and Annealing Temperature on Structural, Electrical and Optical Properties of Ag DopedZnO Thin Films

“…The (002) plane is the close-packed plane of hexagonal structure, so thin films grow along the c-axis that is perpendicular to the substrate to reduce the surface free energy. 18,[23][24] However, the thin films deposited at different temperatures show different diffraction peak intensities. Additionally, as the annealing temperature increased, the intensity of (101) became stronger instead of (002).…”

“…Because Ag + has the smaller ion size 19 and this is higher than the values reported previously. [18][19] The hole concentrations of as-deposited ZnO:Ag films reduced with increasing deposition temperature, because Ag content reduced gradually according to the deposition temperature. PL spectra of the ZnO:Ag thin films with deposition temperature were measured at RT and the results of asgrown films are illustrated in Figure 7 and 8.…”

“…To avoid this problem, doping with group IB elements was theoretically suggested 20) and a very few reports are available on ptype ZnO with Ag doping deposited by sputtering method and PLD. [17][18][19] In this work, realization of p-type ZnO thin films by ebeam evaporation of ZnO:Ag 2 O target are reported. The e-beam evaporation method has several advantages.…”

“…[2][3][4][5][6] To compensate and suppress the native donor defects, it is needed to find proper p-type dopant material. Many research groups have reported group I (Li, Na and K), [7][8][9] group V (N, P, Sb and As), [10][11][12][13][14][15] and group IB (Cu and Ag) [16][17][18][19] elements as p-type dopants.…”

Optical properties of ZnO and Mn-doped ZnO nanocrystals fabrication by vapor phase transport processes

“…Zinc oxide (ZnO), a promising II-IV group semiconductor material with hexagonal wurtzite structure, has been widely applied in various fields [1] such as transducers, transparent conduction electrode, solar sells, and wide ultraviolet (UV) optoelectronic devices [2], due to its direct band gap of 3.37 eV at room temperature and a large exciton binding energy of 60 meV. To realize the light-emitting devices, an important issue is the fabrication of p-type conduction ZnO with a high concentration of hole and a low resistance.…”