Fabrication of n-Zn1−xGaxO/p-(ZnO)1−x(GaP)x thin films and homojunction

Highlights: ► An idea of direct doping donor and acceptor (GaP) into ZnO to realize p-ZnO. ► n-ZnO films have been grown by monodoping Ga into ZnO. ► ZnO homojunction has been fabricated using best monodoped and codoped ZnO films. ► Fabricated homojunction shows typical rectification behavior of the diode. - Abstract: Ga doped ZnO (GZO) and GaP codoped ZnO (GPZO) thin films of different concentrations (1–4 mol%) have been grown on sapphire substrates by RF sputtering for the fabrication of ZnO homojunction. The grown films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoluminescence (PL), Hall measurement, energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometer (ToF-SIMS), UV–Vis–NIR spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Unlike in conventional codoping, here we directly doped (codoped) GaP into ZnO to realize p-ZnO. The Hall measurements indicate that 2 and 4% GPZO films exhibit p-conductivity due to the sufficient amount of phosphorous incorporation while all the monodoped GZO films showed n-conductivity as expected. Among the p-ZnO films, 2% GPZO film shows low resistivity (2.17 Ωcm) and high hole concentration (1.8 × 1018 cm−3) by optimum incorporation of phosphorous due to best codoping. Similarly, among the n-type films, 2% GZO shows low resistivity (1.32 Ωcm) and high electron concentration (2.02 × 1019 cm−3) by optimum amount of Ga incorporation. The blue shift and red shift in NBE emission observed from PL acknowledged the formation of n- and p-conduction in monodoped and codoped films, respectively. The neutral acceptor bound exciton recombination (A0X) observed by low temperature PL for 2% GPZO confirms the p-conductivity. Further, the high concentration of P atoms than Ga observed from ToF-SIMS (2% GPZO) also supports the p-conductivity of the films. The fabricated p–n junction with best codoped p-(ZnO)0.98(GaP)0.02 and best monodoped n-Zn0.98Ga0.02O films showed typical rectification behavior of a diode. The diode parameters have also been estimated for the fabricated homojunction.