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Metal-organic chemical vapor deposition growth and nitrogen doping of ZnO thin films. / CUHK electronic theses & dissertations collection

Electrical and optical properties of the (N,Ga)-doped ZnO films have been studied. Three growth regions were identified to obtain ZnO films with different conduction types depending on the N/Ga flux ratio in doping process. The PL spectra show evident competition between neutral-donor bound exciton (D0X) and neutral-acceptor bound exciton (A0X) according to the N/Ga ratio. From the temperature-dependent PL spectra, the nitrogen acceptor level was identified to be about 126 meV in (N,Ga)-doped p-type ZnO. / For nitrogen doping of ZnO thin films, DMHy was used as the nitrogen dopant source. A narrow temperature window from about 500°C to 550°C for efficient nitrogen doping was identified. However, p-type ZnO was not obtained by nitrogen mono-doping, which results from the low solubility of N and the self-compensating effect of native defects, and/or N-induced complexes. By co-doping N with Ga in proper ratios, p-type ZnO films were successfully achieved with a high hole concentration of 3.51 x 1017 --2.41 x 1018cm-3, Hall mobility of 1.1 --4.29 cm2/V-s and resistivity of 0.6 -- 16.2 O cm. But the conduction type critically depends on the growth conditions. Based on the successfully fabrication of (N,Ga)-doped p-type ZnO, a p-ZnO:(N,Ga)/n-ZnO homojunction was fabricated. The I-V measurement shows clear rectifying behavior with a turn-on voltage of about 3.7 V. / Further investigation of the effect of N/Ga doping ratios on the conduction type of ZnO samples reveals that successful doping depends much on engineering a stable local chemical bonding environment. Under mono-doping conditions (via N-Zn4), nitrogen solubility is limited and nitrogen acceptors are readily compensated by native donors and/or N-related donors; under appropriate N/Ga flux ratios, cluster-doping (via Ga-N3O and Ga-N4) can be realized to achieve p-type ZnO; while excessively high N/Ga ratios cause the doped ZnO n-type conductivity again, which may be because that under excessively high N/Ga ratio range, N-Zn4 configuration dominates and thus cause more N-related donors and degrade the ZnO film quality, similar as the mono-doping case. By tuning the N/Ga ratio in doping, it is expected to create appropriate chemical environments to enhance the formation of desired dopant species for stable p-type ZnO. / In this work, Metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) growth of ZnO and its p-type doping have been studied. The group V element N was used as primary dopant to make ZnO p-type. In the growth of ZnO by MOCVD, it was found that the structural and morphological properties of deposited ZnO strongly depend on growth conditions. Low VI/II ratio and high growth rate favor the growth of ZnO nanostructures (nanowires, nanobelts); while high VI/II ratio and low growth rate favor the growth of ZnO thin films. / The semiconductor ZnO is currently gaining intense interest in the research community because of its prospect in optoelectronic applications, such as blue/ultraviolet emitters and detectors, and high speed electronic devices. However, making reliable and reproducible p-type ZnO is still a bottleneck, which impedes the practical application of ZnO-based devices. The difficulty is mainly due to the self-compensation effect of native defects and the low solubility limit of acceptor dopants. Although substantial research is currently being carried out worldwide towards this goal, the effective p-type dopant and its doping process have not yet been identified. / Wang, Hui. / "Apr 2008." / Adviser: Aaron H. P. Ho. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-03, Section: B, page: 1860. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:cuhk.edu.hk/oai:cuhk-dr:cuhk_344182
Date January 2008
ContributorsWang, Hui, Chinese University of Hong Kong Graduate School. Division of Electronic Engineering.
Source SetsThe Chinese University of Hong Kong
LanguageEnglish, Chinese
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeText, theses
Formatelectronic resource, microform, microfiche, 1 online resource (xv, 110 p. : ill.)
RightsUse of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons “Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International” License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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