Optical and morphological features of bulk and homoepitaxial ZnO

Abstract

ZnO substrate crystals from two different sources, and epitaxial layers have been studied by SEM, AFM, photoluminescence ( T = 2 – 135 K ) and EPR. Although fabricated by the same growth principle, i.e. the hydrothermal technique, the substrates differ in terms of purity and structural quality. In the PL spectra of all samples the dominating emission originates from the donor bound exciton (BE) recombination positioned at about 3361 meV. The temperature dependence of the spectra confirms the assignment of the free exciton emission in the purest sample, the line at 3376 meV evolves into a broad peak at higher temperatures, probably including both A and B excitons. Another FE-related emission appears as a shoulder on the high-energy side of FE A,B above 40 K. It is expected and associated with the crystal-field split-off counterpart of the valence band. Free-exciton related emission in the less pure sample can only be seen if the temperature is above 45 K. At T = 135 K all bound excitons are quenched and the spectrum in both samples consists of the free exciton no-phonon lines and their replicas. However, the emission from the pure samples is several orders of magnitude stronger than that from the other sample, which indicates strong non-radiative quenching of the excitons in the latter sample. The EPR measurements reveal a possible scenario of impurity re-arrangement, e.g. annealing at 950 ∘C may dissociate existing complexes and release Fe as isolated ions. The AFM and SEM investigations of an epilayer grown by MOCVD on one of the studied substrates have indicated growth instabilities and structural irregularities, thus pointing to the need for substrate quality and epitaxial process optimization.