Direct Observation of Nitrogen Location in Molecular Beam Epitaxy Grown Nitrogen-Doped ZnO

Journal Article · Fri Feb 03 04:00:00 EST 2006 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.96.0· OSTI ID:20778546

Fons, Paul; Tampo, Hiroshi; Kolobov, Alexander V; Ohkubo, Masataka; Niki, Shigeru; Tominaga, Junji; Carboni, Roberta; Boscherini, Federico; Friedrich, Stephan ^[1]

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1. National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba Central 4, Higashi 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8562 (Japan)

ZnO is a wide band gap, naturally n-type semiconductor with great promise for optoelectronic applications; the main obstacle yet to be overcome is p-type doping. Nitrogen, the most promising candidate currently being pursued as a dopant, has been predicted to preferentially incorporate into the ZnO lattice in the form of a N{sub 2}{sup -} molecule at an O site when a plasma source is used, leading to compensation rather than p-type doping. We demonstrate this to be incorrect by using N K-edge x-ray absorption spectra and comparing them with first-principles calculations showing that nitrogen, in fact, incorporates substitutionally at O sites where it is expected to act as an acceptor. We also detect the formation of molecular nitrogen upon annealing. These results suggest that effective p-type doping of ZnO with N may be possible only for low-temperature growth processes.

• OSTI ID: 20778546
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 96; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ANNEALING
CRYSTAL GROWTH
DOPED MATERIALS
MOLECULAR BEAM EPITAXY
NITROGEN
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
X-RAY SPECTRA
ZINC OXIDES