Effect of Oxidation Condition on Growth of N: ZnO Prepared by Oxidizing Sputtering Zn-N Film.

Xuesi Qin,Guojian Li,Guozhen Chen,Lin Xiao,Kai Wang,Qiang Wang

doi:10.1186/s11671-016-1485-7

Abstract

Nitrogen-doped zinc oxide (N: ZnO) films have been prepared by oxidizing reactive RF magnetron-sputtering zinc nitride (Zn-N) films. The effect of oxidation temperature and oxidation time on the growth, transmittance, and electrical properties of the film has been explored. The results show that both long oxidation time and high oxidation temperature can obtain the film with a good transmittance (over 80 % for visible and infrared light) and a high carrier concentration. The N: ZnO film exhibits a special growth model with the oxidation time and is first to form a N: ZnO particle on the surface, then to become a N: ZnO layer, and followed by the inside Zn-N segregating to the surface to oxidize N: ZnO. The surface particle oxidized more adequately than the inside. However, the X-ray photoemission spectroscopy results show that the lower N concentration results in the lower N substitution in the O lattice (No). This leads to the formation of n-type N: ZnO and the decrease of carrier concentration. Thus, this method can be used to tune the microstructure, optical transmittance, and electrical properties of the N: ZnO film.

Highlights

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has a wide direct bandgap of 3.4 eV at room temperature and a high exciton binding energy of 60 meV [1]
In order to confirm the oxidation temperature of ZnO to become transparent for the zinc nitride (Zn-N) film, the crystal structure and transmittance of the N: ZnO films oxidized at different temperatures for 60 min were first studied
According to a previous study [35], the preferred orientation of Zn gradually turns to the orientation of the substrate with the increase of oxidation temperature

Summary

Introduction

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has a wide direct bandgap of 3.4 eV at room temperature and a high exciton binding energy of 60 meV [1]. It has features of being low cost, non-toxic, stable, and transparent [2, 3]. It is important to form a p-n junction and to increase the concentration and mobility of a carrier. It has been a challenge to build a high-efficiency and stable homo ZnO p-n junction [9] since the carriers are easy to trap at the p-n heterojunction [10, 11]. The key point is to prepare p-type ZnO and to improve the concentration and mobility of the carrier

Methods

Results

Conclusion