Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a promising photoanode material which has been used in quantum dot-based depleted heterojunction solar cells. The specific influence of the defect chemistry of ZnO on its n-type conductivity remains a focus for research. This thesis presents results from a series of near-ambient pressure (NAP) XPS experiments (at The University of Manchester, UK), used to characterise surface adsorption of O2 and H2O on ZnO(10-10) surfaces in high pressure environments. Water dosing is shown to lead to surface hydroxylation and a change in the surface band bending consistent with an increase in the surface conductivity. Oxygen dosing is also observed to lead to the formation of surface species on the ZnO surface, revealing that ZnO is prone to hydroxylation even in oxygen-rich environments. The role of surface OH on influencing the transient surface photovoltage (SPV) of the ZnO(10-10) surface is probed through a series of time-resolved, pump-probe XPS experiments (at SOLEIL synchrotron, France). It is shown that increasing the degree of surface hydroxylation leads to a decrease in surface band bending, leading to longer-lived transient SPV. Other factors influencing the SPV dynamics are explored, such as the role of the oxygen vacancy concentration. The transient SPV decay lifetime is shown to increase with increasing oxygen vacancy concentration, consistent with the presence of persistent photoconductivity (PPC) in ZnO, mediated by oxygen vacancy-related hole traps. The influence of the concentration of thermally excited carriers in ZnO on the surface band bending is also described, showing that the equilibrium band bending and the surface photovoltage are both reduced at low temperature. It is shown that thermal excitation of carriers from the valence band of ZnO and from neutral oxygen vacancies have negligible influence on the magnitude of equilibrium band bending at the surface. The energy regime consistent with the observed temperature dependence is also consistent with a perturbed-host state 0.2 eV below the conduction band minimum. This meta-stable state is associated with doubly-ionised oxygen vacancies, that mediate the PPC in ZnO. However this does not rule out the contribution from other shallow donor levels such as those associated with hydrogen impurities. The influence of hydrogen on the SPV dynamics in ZnO is explored, through angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) after implanting hydrogen atoms into the ZnO surface. H implantation is shown to lead to the formation of a 2D electron gas (2DEG) at the surface, consistent with an increase in conductivity at the surface large enough to change the nature of the space-charge region at the ZnO surface from depletion to accumulation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:734242 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Williamson, Andrew |
| Contributors | Flavell, Wendy |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/carrier-dynamics-persistent-photoconductivity-and-defect-chemistry-at-zinc-oxide-photoanodes(ec59e44c-0f17-40e5-ab34-871afbea0ea9).html |
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