D. C. Reynolds

Characterization of homoepitaxial p-type ZnO grown by molecular beam epitaxy

An N-doped, p-type ZnO layer has been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on an Li-diffused, bulk, semi-insulating ZnO substrate. Hall-effect and conductivity measurements on the layer give: resistivity=4×101 Ω cm; hole mobility=2 cm2/V s; and hole concentration=9×1016 cm−3. Photoluminescence measurements in this N-doped layer show a much stronger peak near 3.32 eV (probably due to neutral acceptor bound excitons), than at 3.36 eV (neutral donor bound excitons), whereas the opposite is true in undoped ZnO. Calibrated, secondary-ion mass spectroscopy measurements show an N surface concentration of about 1019 cm−3 in the N-doped sample, but only about 1017 cm−3 in the undoped sample.

Electrical Properties of Bulk ZnO

Abstract Large-diameter (2-inch), n -type ZnO boules grown by a new vapor-phase transport method were investigated by the temperature-dependent Hall-effect technique. The 300-K Hall carrier concentration and mobility were about 6 × 10 16 cm −3 and 205 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , respectively, and the peak mobility (at 50 K) was about 2000 cm 2 V −1 s −1 , comparable to the highest values reported in the past for ZnO. The dominant donor had a concentration of about 1 × 10 17 cm −3 and an energy of about 60 meV, close to the expected hydrogenic value, whereas the total acceptor concentration was much lower, about 2 × 10 15 cm −3 . Photoluminescence measurements confirm the high quality of the material.

Optically Pumped Ultraviolet Lasing from ZnO

Well formed, longitudinal optically-pumped lasing modes from vapor phase grown ZnO platelets have been observed. The lasing cavity was formed from as-grown crystal planes, and the lasing occurs at very low pump powers.

Production and annealing of electron irradiation damage in ZnO

High-energy (>1.6 MeV) electrons create acceptors and donors in single-crystal ZnO. Greater damage is observed for irradiation in the [0001] direction (Zn face) than in the [0001] direction (O face). The major annealing stage occurs at about 300–325 °C, and is much sharper for defects produced by Zn-face irradiation, than for those resulting from O-face irradiation. The defects appear to have a chain character, rather than being simple, near-neighbor vacancy/interstitial Frenkel pairs. These experiments suggest that ZnO is significantly more “radiation hard” than Si, GaAs, or GaN, and should be useful for applications in high-irradiation environments, such as electronics in space satellites.

Similarities in the Bandedge and Deep-Centre Photoluminescence Mechanisms of ZnO and GaN

Abstract Several of the optical transitions in ZnO and GaN appear to derive from a similar origin and have considerable overlap in the energy regions where they occur. In particular the donor-acceptor pair transitions and the well known “yellow band” in GaN and the analogous “green band” in ZnO show remarkable similarities. Because of these similarities it is likely that the respective transitions in the two materials are defect related and share common mechanisms.

Role of Near-Surface States in Ohmic-Schottky Conversion of Au Contacts to ZnO

A conversion from ohmic to rectifying behavior is observed for Au contacts on atomically ordered polar ZnO surfaces following remote, room-temperature oxygen plasma treatment. This transition is accompanied by reduction of the “green” deep level cathodoluminescence emission, suppression of the hydrogen donor-bound exciton photoluminescence and a ∼0.75eV increase in n-type band bending observed via x-ray photoemission. These results demonstrate that the contact type conversion involves more than one mechanism, specifically, removal of the adsorbate-induced accumulation layer plus lowered tunneling due to reduction of near-surface donor density and defect-assisted hopping transport.

Production of Nitrogen Acceptors in ZnO by Thermal Annealing

Nitrogen acceptors are formed when undoped single crystals of zinc oxide (ZnO) grown by the chemical-vapor transport method are annealed in air or nitrogen atmosphere at temperatures between 600 and 900 °C. After an anneal, an induced near-edge absorption band causes the crystals to appear yellow. Also, the concentration of neutral shallow donors, as monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), is significantly reduced. A photoinduced EPR signal due to neutral nitrogen acceptors is observed when the annealed crystals are exposed to laser light (e.g., 364, 442, 458, or 514 nm) at low temperature. The nitrogens are initially in the nonparamagnetic singly ionized state (N−) in an annealed crystal, because of the large number of shallow donors, and the light converts a portion of them to the paramagnetic neutral acceptor state (N0).

Time-resolved photoluminescence lifetime measurements of the Γ5 and Γ6 free excitons in ZnO

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy at 2 K was used to measure the radiative recombination lifetime of the allowed (Γ5) and forbidden (Γ6) free excitons in ZnO. The measurements were made on a sample containing internal strain, which altered the sample symmetry, and resulted in relaxed selection rules, allowing the Γ6 exciton to be observed. A radiative recombination lifetime of 259 ps was measured for the Γ5 exciton and 245 ps for the Γ6 exciton. The decay of the free excitons was of single-exponential form, and the decay times were obtained using a least-squares fit of the data.

Remote hydrogen plasma doping of single crystal ZnO

We demonstrate that remote plasma hydrogenation can increase electron concentrations in ZnO single crystals by more than an order of magnitude. We investigated the effects of this treatment on Hall concentration and mobility as well as on the bound exciton emission peak I4 for a variety of ZnO single crystals–bulk air annealed, Li doped, and epitaxially grown on sapphire. Hydrogen increases I4 intensity in conducting samples annealed at 500 and 600 °C and partially restores emission in the I4 range for Li-diffused ZnO. Hydrogenation increases carrier concentration significantly for the semi-insulating Li doped and epitaxial thin film samples. These results indicate a strong link between the incorporation of hydrogen, increased donor-bound exciton PL emission, and increased n-type conductivity.

Optical Properties of GaN Grown on ZnO by Reactive Molecular Beam Epitaxy

High quality wurtzite GaN epilayers have been grown on ZnO(0001) substrates by reactive molecular beam epitaxy. Photoluminescence and reflectivity measurements point to high quality presumably due to the near match of both the crystal lattice parameter and the stacking order between GaN and ZnO. In addition, the good films lack the characteristic yellow photoluminescence band. Any misorientation of the GaN epilayer planes with respect to the ZnO substrate is not detectable with polarized reflectivity. The x-ray double crystal diffraction measurements indicate this misorientation is much smaller than those for GaN epilayers on SiC and Al2O3 .