The compensation source in nitrogen doped ZnO

Abstract

Nitrogen doped zinc oxide (ZnO) films have been prepared by molecular beam epitaxy. The as-grown samples show n-type conduction, but they convert to p-type after being annealed in O2 atmosphere. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy reveals that the conversion is mainly caused by the escaping of substituted N molecule (N2)O donors from the films, and photoluminescence spectroscopy confirms the extraction of (N2)O. The work shown in this paper reveals experimentally that the main compensation source in nitrogen doped ZnO is (N2)O donors instead of intrinsic donors or background impurities, and annealing in oxygen may be a promising route to p-ZnO.