N and Al co-doping as a way to p-type ZnO without post-growth annealing

We demonstrate experimental results on p-type ZnO films grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD) and co-doped with aluminum and nitrogen (ANZO). The films were obtained at low temperature (100 °C) with different N to Al ratio and show conductivity type, which depends on the N and Al content. We applied the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in order to get insight into a chemical nature of dopants and we found three pronounced contributions of the N1s core level which appear at binding energies of 396.1, 397.4 and around 399 eV. Based on ANZO and undoped ZnO films, both grown by the ALD technique, the ZnO homojunction was obtained in one technological process without any post-growth high temperature processing. The rectification ratio as high as 4 × 10⁴ at ± 2 V was achieved when an ultrathin Al₂O₃ layer was inserted between p - and n -type ZnO and a n -type ZnO buffer layer deposited on an insulating Si substrate was applied. (paper)