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Comprehensive study on Sb-doped zinc oxide films deposited on c-plane Al2O3 substrates

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Abstract

Undoped and Sb-doped p-type ZnO films were grown on (001) sapphire using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technology. The crystal, optical, and electrical properties of the undoped and Sb-doped ZnO film were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence, optical transmittance spectroscopy and Hall measurement system. The XRD patterns indicated both films exhibited preferred orientation along c axis and had a compressive stress. Strong near-band gap emissions of both films were observed in the room temperature photoluminescence spectra. Low temperature photoluminescence spectrum of the ZnO film was dominated by a donor-bound exciton with peak at 3.365 eV. To the Sb-doped ZnO film, donor-bound exciton was buried into the free exciton with peak at 3.371 eV, and emission intensities associated acceptor enhanced. The acceptor binding energy was calculated to be 0.19 eV. The optical bandgap of the Sb-doped ZnO film was estimated to be 3.302 eV. The Sb-doped ZnO film exhibited p-type conductivity with the resistivity of 0.6729 Ω cm, mobility of 6.150 cm2 V−1 s−1 and carrier concentration of 1.508 × 1018 cm−3.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21473015), the Liaoning Province Doctor Scientific Research Foundation of China (No. 201601079), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 3132017057).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, 116026, People’s Republic of China

    Yi Cheng, Jixiang Chen, Xizhen Zhang, Tao Yu, Kun Yang & Li Che

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  1. Yi Cheng
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Correspondence to Yi Cheng.

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Cheng, Y., Chen, J., Zhang, X. et al. Comprehensive study on Sb-doped zinc oxide films deposited on c-plane Al2O3 substrates. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 29, 11280–11285 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-9215-9

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