Growth of N-doped and Ga+N-codoped ZnO films by radical source molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

It has been theoretically predicted that the codoping of an acceptor (nitrogen) and a donor (aluminium, gallium, indium) in a 2 : 1 ratio will enable the fabrication of low resistivity p-type ZnO due to reduction of the Madelung energy making the nitrogen acceptor energy level shallower. We have been growing N-doped and Ga+N codoped ZnO films by radical-source molecular beam epitaxy. Nitrogen and oxygen radicals were separately supplied via radio-frequency radical cells. Nitrogen did not incorporate in ZnO films at the high substrate temperature of 600°C. Lower substrate temperatures were necessary for nitrogen incorporation. From the fact that the nitrogen concentration also depended on the Zn fluxes, it is concluded that Zn-rich conditions are indispensable for nitrogen doping. The presence of Ga was observed to enhance nitrogen incorporation, one of the predicted effects of codoping. However, high Ga concentrations were found to lead to formation of the additional phase of ZnGa 2O 4 in ZnO films.