Nitrogen is a deep acceptor in ZnO

Tarun, M. C.; Iqbal, M. Zafar; McCluskey, M. D.

doi:10.1063/1.3582819

Nitrogen is a deep acceptor in ZnO

Journal Article · Thu Apr 14 00:00:00 EDT 2011 · AIP Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3582819· OSTI ID:1076494

Tarun, M. C. ^[1]; Iqbal, M. Zafar ^[2]; McCluskey, M. D. ^[1]

Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)
COMSATS Institute of Information Technology (Pakistan)

Zinc oxide is a promising material for blue and UV solid-state lighting devices, among other applications. Nitrogen has been regarded as a potential p-type dopant for ZnO. However, recent calculations indicate that nitrogen is a deep acceptor. This paper presents experimental evidence that nitrogen is, in fact, a deep acceptor and therefore cannot produce p-type ZnO. A broad photoluminescence (PL) emission band near 1.7 eV, with an excitation onset of ~2.2 eV, was observed, in agreement with the deep-acceptor model of the nitrogen defect. Thus the deep-acceptor behavior can be explained by the low energy of the ZnO valence band relative to the vacuum level.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER46386

OSTI ID:: 1076494

Journal Information:: AIP Advances, Journal Name: AIP Advances Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 1; ISSN AAIDBI; ISSN 2158-3226

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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