Effects of nitrogen doping and illumination on lattice constants and conductivity behavior of zinc oxide grown by magnetron sputtering

• Published in: Journal of applied physics 2006-06, Vol.99 (12), p.123510-123510-5
• Main Authors: Yao, B., Shen, D. Z., Zhang, Z. Z., Wang, X. H., Wei, Z. P., Li, B. H., Lv, Y. M., Fan, X. W., Guan, L. X., Xing, G. Z., Cong, C. X., Xie, Y. P.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0021-8979; 1089-7550
• DOI: 10.1063/1.2208414

A yellow-orange nitrogen-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:N) film was deposited on a quartz glass substrate at 510 K by reactive radio-frequency magnetron sputtering of a ZnO target with sputtering gas of nitrogen. The lattice constants of the as-grown ZnO:N are much larger than those of undoped ZnO, and decrease with increasing annealing temperature due to escape of the nitrogen from the ZnO:N and decrease of tensile stress, accompanied with color change from yellow-orange to pale yellow. The nitrogen occupies two chemical environments in the ZnO:N based on x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurement. One is N O acceptor formed by substitution of N atom for O sublattice, and another is ( N 2 ) O double donors produced by substitution of N molecular for O site, which make the lattice constants expanded. The as-grown ZnO:N film shows insulating, but behaves p -type conduction in the dark after annealed at 863 K for 1 h under 10 − 3 Pa . Unfortunately, the p -type conduction is not stable and reverts to n type soon. However, after illuminated by sunlight for several minutes, the n -type ZnO:N transforms into p type again. The mechanism of the transformation of the conductivity behavior is discussed in the present work.