Arsenic Doping of ZnO Thin Films by Ion Implantation

Abstract

ZnO with wurtzite structure has a wide band gap of 3.37 eV. Because ZnO has a direct band gap and a large exciton binding energy, it has higher optical efficiency and thermal stability than the GaN material of blue light emitting devices. To fabricate ZnO devices with optical and thermal advantages, n-type and p-type doping are needed. Many research groups have devoted themselves to fabricating stable p-type ZnO. In this study, As+ ion was implanted using an ion implanter to fabricate p-type ZnO. After the ion implant, rapid thermal annealing (RTA) was conducted to activate the arsenic dopants. First, the structural and optical properties of the ZnO thin films were investigated for as-grown, as-implanted, and annealed ZnO using FE-SEM, XRD, and PL, respectively. Then, the structural, optical, and electrical properties of the ZnO thin films, depending on the As ion dose variation and the RTA temperatures, were analyzed using the same methods. In our experiment, p-type ZnO thin films with a hole concentration of 1.263 x 10(18) cm(-3) were obtained when the dose of 5 x 10(14) As ions/cm(2) was implanted and the RTA was conducted at 850 degrees C for 1 min.