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Title: Effects of hydrogen on acceptor activation in ternary nitride semiconductors

Journal Article · · Advanced Electronic Materials
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [2]
  1. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
  2. National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
  3. Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO (United States)
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Doping control is necessary to unlock the scientific and technological potential of many materials, including ternary II-IV-nitride semiconductors, which are closely related to binary GaN. In particular, ZnSnN2 has been reported to have degenerate doping density, despite bandgap energies that are well suited for solar energy conversion. Here, we show that annealing Zn-rich Zn1+xSn1-xN2 grown with added hydrogen reduces its free electron density by orders of magnitude, down to 4 x 1016 cm-3. This experimental observation can be explained by hydrogen passivation of acceptors in Zn1+xSn1-xN2 during growth, lowering the driving force for unintentional donor formation. Lastly, these results indicate that the doping control principles used in GaN can be translated to ZnSnN2, suggesting that other strategies used in binary III-Vs can be applied to accelerate the technological development of ternary II-IV-N2 materials.

Research Organization:
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Solar Energy Technologies Office
Grant/Contract Number:
AC36-08GO28308
OSTI ID:
1347202
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1401270
Report Number(s):
NREL/JA-5K00-67268
Journal Information:
Advanced Electronic Materials, Vol. 3, Issue 3; ISSN 2199-160X
Publisher:
WileyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 51 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (5)

Interplay between Composition, Electronic Structure, Disorder, and Doping due to Dual Sublattice Mixing in Nonequilibrium Synthesis of ZnSnN 2 :O journal January 2019
Thin Film Solar Cell Based on ZnSnN 2 /SnO Heterojunction journal November 2017
Instilling defect tolerance in new compounds journal September 2017
Conduction-band effective mass and bandgap of ZnSnN2 earth-abundant solar absorber journal November 2017
Electron scattering mechanisms in polycrystalline sputtered zinc tin oxynitride thin films journal July 2019

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Related Subjects

14 SOLAR ENERGY
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
annealing
hydrogen
nitride
photovoltaics
semiconductor