Optical observation of donor-bound excitons in hydrogen-implanted ZnO

Abstract

The optical and structural properties of H or He implanted ZnO were investigated using low temperature photoluminescence (PL) and infrared spectroscopy (IR). H implantation is shown to influence the relative luminescence intensities of the donor bound excitons, enhancing the 3.361 eV peak, and changing the overall intensity of the PL spectrum. PL from He implanted ZnO is used to demonstrate that implantation damage is partially responsible for the variations observed in the PL of H implanted ZnO. IR spectra show that the increase in the relative intensity of the 3.361 eV peak coincides with an appearance of the H vibrational mode in the ZnO lattice. Our results indicate that the implanted H forms O–H bonds at Zn vacancies, and that it is these defect complexes which give rise to the shallow donors participating in the observed bound-exciton luminescence at 3.361 eV.