Violet luminescence in phosphorus-doped ZnO epitaxial films

Abstract

A violet luminescence band at 3.1099eV was observed at 12.5K in phosphorus-doped ZnO epitaxial films deposited by O2 plasma-assisted pulsed laser ablation. The band results from a transition between a shallow donor and a deep acceptor induced by phosphorus doping. The activation energy of the acceptor varies with the phosphorus concentration [P] and is 0.34eV when [P] is 1.7×1019cm−3. Under oxygen-rich conditions, the dominant acceptor in P2O5-doped ZnO may be the zinc vacancy, in agreement with recent first-principles calculations.