Electron scattering mechanisms in polycrystalline sputtered zinc tin oxynitride thin films

Hamilton, Dylan C.; Arca, Elisabetta; Pan, Jie; Siol, Sebastian; Macomber, Aaron; Young, Matthew; Lany, Stephan; Zakutayev, Andriy

doi:10.1063/1.5087408

Title: Electron scattering mechanisms in polycrystalline sputtered zinc tin oxynitride thin films

Journal Article · Tue Jul 16 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Journal of Applied Physics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5087408· OSTI ID:1544539

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National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Nanosys Inc., Milpitas, CA (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States); Empa—Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Dübendorf (Switzerland)

Zinc tin nitride (ZnSnN₂) is an emerging ternary nitride semiconductor studied for applications in solar cells, light-emitting diodes, and other optoelectronic devices. For all of these applications, the charge carrier mobility is an important property. Yet, the dominant electron scattering mechanisms in ZnSnN₂ are unclear, especially in the presence of oxygen that is often incorporated during thin film sputter deposition of this material. Moreover, there are no experimental reports on the concentration of defects in such polycrystalline sputtered zinc tin oxynitride Zn_1+xSn_1-xN_2-2xO_2x (ZTNO) thin films. Here, we address both of these questions using temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements of sputtered ZTNO thin films as a function of Zn composition and O content. The measured temperature dependence of the mobility is fitted to scattering on ionized and neutral defects and to grain boundary scattering. The results suggest that ZTNO is a heavily compensated semiconductor, with a high density of neutral defects dominating the electron scattering processes. First principles theoretical calculations indicate that these neutral defects are likely to originate from the abundant Zn_Sn-2O_N complexes in the ZTNO material. Overall, these results establish the dominant electron scattering mechanisms in polycrystalline sputtered ZTNO and help position this material for future use in optoelectronic devices.

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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:: 1544539

Report Number(s):: NREL/JA-5K00-73047

Journal Information:: Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 126, Issue 3; ISSN 0021-8979

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 12 works

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Title: Electron scattering mechanisms in polycrystalline sputtered zinc tin oxynitride thin films

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