Nonradiative Transition Processes Observed from Photoacoustic Spectra of ZnO Thin Films Fabricated by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Abstract

Photoacoustic (PA) spectroscopy is a powerful tool for evaluating nonradiative transition processes in semiconductors. By this technique, we evaluated the nonradiative transition process (NRTP) in ZnO thin films that were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition on R-sapphire and C-sapphire substrates in vacuum and in oxygen ambient. The samples each exhibited a specific PA spectrum reflecting the characteristics based on different crystalline orientations and qualities. The relationships between a NRTP and a radiative transition process (RTP) were studied using photoluminescence and PA spectroscopy to investigate the effect of oxygen vacancy (VO) compensation in films. (1120) ZnO/R-sapphire indicated that the NRTP in the UV region and the RTP in the green-yellow region dominate strongly over transition processes. On the other hand, (0001) ZnO/C-sapphire had opposite domination relationships in the RTP and the NRTP to those of (1120) ZnO/R-sapphire. We concluded that the decrease of the NRTP that originated from the compensation of VO strongly affected the RTP in (0001) ZnO/C-sapphire and the NRTP in (1120) ZnO/R-sapphire.