Doping of Nitrogen in Li-Al doped ZnO by RF Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract

ZnO and Li-Al co-doped ZnO thin lms were grown on c-plane Al2O3 at a growth temperature of 500 C with a N2O pressure of 10 mTorr by using RF magnetron sputtering. The composition of the sputtering targets consisted of (1 x)ZnO + x(LiO0:5 + AlO1:5) (x = 0, 2.5, 5, 10, 15). The Li-Al co-doped ZnO were observed to be a single phase with a hexagonal wurtzite structure. The solubility of (LiO0:5 + AlO1:5) in the ZnO thin lms was estimated to be more then 15 mol%. The incorporation of nitrogen in the ZnO thin lm grown using RF magnetron sputtering was enhanced with increasing co-doped amount of (LiO0:5 + AlO1:5). The main nitrogen defect in the ZnO thin lms was a single N atom substituting at the O site (NO), which could be an acceptor.