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Identification of a Deep Acceptor Level in ZnO Due to Silver Doping

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There remains considerable interest in the behavior of acceptors in ZnO, the ultimate goal being the realization of device grade p-type material. Silver is a candidate acceptor, and, in this study, in situ doping of silver was performed during plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Silver concentrations, as determined by ion beam analysis, ranged between 1018 cm−3and 1020 cm−3, with as much as 94% incorporated substitutionally on Zn lattice sites. Variable magnetic field Hall effect measurements detected no evidence of holes, and 4 K photoluminescence was dominated by donor bound excitons. Transient capacitance measurements, however, suggested that incorporated silver had led to the formation of an acceptor, located approximately 320 meV above the valence band edge, indicating that compensation remains a significant issue in determining the conductivity of ZnO.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported by Marsden Fund grant UOC0604, the University of Canterbury, the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, and the New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission Doctoral Scholarship Programme (J.C.). Assistance from G. Turner, H. Devereux, M.W. Allen, and J. Partridge is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    J. Chai & S. M. Durbin

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand

    R. J. Mendelsberg & R. J. Reeves

  3. GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand

    J. Kennedy

  4. Institut für Experimentelle Physik II, Universität Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

    H. von Wenckstern, M. Schmidt & M. Grundmann

  5. Department of Physics, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV, USA

    K. Doyle

  6. Materials Science and Engineering Program, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

    T. H. Myers

  7. The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, The MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, New Zealand

    J. Chai, R. J. Mendelsberg, R. J. Reeves, J. Kennedy & S. M. Durbin

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  1. J. Chai
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Correspondence to S. M. Durbin.

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Chai, J., Mendelsberg, R.J., Reeves, R.J. et al. Identification of a Deep Acceptor Level in ZnO Due to Silver Doping. J. Electron. Mater. 39, 577–583 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-009-1025-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-009-1025-7

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