Home Search Collections Journals About Contact us My IOPscience Stress-dependent band gap shift and quenching of defects in Al-doped ZnO films This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article. 2010 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 465402 (http://iopscience.iop.org/0022-3727/43/46/465402) View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more Download details: IP Address: 124.124.247.140 The article was downloaded on 08/11/2010 at 12:52 Please note that terms and conditions apply. IOP PUBLISHING JOURNAL OF PHYSICS D: APPLIED PHYSICS J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 465402 (6pp) doi:10.1088/0022-3727/43/46/465402 Stress-dependent band gap shift and quenching of defects in Al-doped ZnO films Bhupendra K Sharma and Neeraj Khare Department of Physics, IIT Delhi, New Dehi-110016, India E-mail: [email protected] (N Khare) Received 17 May 2010, in final form 3 October 2010 Published 4 November 2010 Online at stacks.iop.org/JPhysD/43/465402 Abstract Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films were deposited on quartz substrates by the ultrasonically assisted chemical vapour deposition technique. The undoped ZnO film was found to be subjected to a stress which increases initially up to 3% Al doping, and then a slight decrease was observed for 5% Al doping. The band gap of AZO shows a blue shift up to 3% of Al doping as compared with the undoped ZnO. The blue shift in the band gap of the AZO films cannot be understood in the framework of Burstein–Moss shift and has been attributed to an increase in the stress present in the film. The photoluminescence spectrum of the undoped ZnO film shows a wide peak in the visible region which is suppressed with a small red shift after Al doping in the ZnO film. A detailed analysis of photoluminescence of ZnO and AZO films indicates suppression of zinc interstitials (Zni ) and oxygen vacancies (VO ) and creation of oxygen interstitial (Oi ) defects after Al doping in ZnO films. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy study also reveals suppression of oxygen vacancy-related defects after Al doping in the ZnO film. The presence of Al in the ZnO matrix seems to change the defect equilibria leading to a suppression of Zni and VO and enhancement of Oi defects. The suppression of Zni defects is correlated with the increase in stress in Al-doped ZnO films. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) and molecular beam epitaxy [9]. There are reports on the observation of blue shift in the band gap of Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films, which has been attributed to the Burstein–Moss (BM) shift [10–12]. The doping of Al in ZnO increases the carrier concentration, n, which starts the filling of states at the bottom of the conduction band leading to a broadening of the band gap, called the BM effect [13]. Many studies have reported the change in stress with deposition and post-heat treatment conditions and its correlation with the optical band gap in ZnO films [14, 15]. In ZnO, the presence of defects influences the photoluminescence (PL) spectra [16]. It is expected that doping of extrinsic dopant Al may influence the defect environment and stress present in the film. Although in most of the studies related to Al-doped ZnO films, the observed blue shift in the band gap is attributed to the BM shift, there is a possibility that a change in stress present in the films after Al doping can also cause the blue shift in the band gap of Al-doped ZnO films. Therefore, it 1. Introduction Zinc oxide (ZnO), a direct wide band gap (∼3.2 eV) semiconductor with a large exciton binding energy (∼60 meV) at room temperature, has attracted considerable attention in recent years due to its potential for applications in light emitting diodes,solar cells, transducers, varistors and photodetectors [1, 2]. As-prepared ZnO naturally shows n-type conductivity due to the presence of zinc interstitials (Zni ) and oxygen vacancies (VO ). N-type conductivity in ZnO can also be achieved by doping with group III elements (e.g. B, Al, Ga and In) [2]. Among these dopants, Al has been found to be an efficient n-type dopant for realizing high-quality samples with strong ultraviolet/blue light emission and high transparency to visible light [3, 4]. Al-doped ZnO (AZO) thin films have been prepared by various techniques such as sol–gel [5], magnetron sputtering [6], chemical vapour deposition [7], pulsed laser deposition [8] 0022-3727/10/465402+06$30.00 1 © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK & the USA J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 465402 B K Sharma and N Khare would be interesting to study the influence of Al doping on stress and optical properties and find a correlation between the stress, optical band gap and defects present in the film. In this study, we have investigated the effect of Al doping on the stress, blue shift in the band gap and the intrinsic defects present in the ZnO film. The undoped ZnO film itself is found to be under stress, which increases with Al doping and results in a blue shift in the optical band gap. Suppression of defects, which were initially present in pure ZnO, has also been observed which seems to have a correlation with the increase in stress. 2. Experimental details ZnO and Al-doped ZnO films were deposited on quartz substrates by the ultrasonically assisted chemical vapour deposition technique. The precursor solutions used for depositing ZnO and Al-doped ZnO (AZO) films were prepared by dissolving zinc acetate dihydrate [Zn(CH3 COO)2 · 2H2 O] and aluminium nitrate [Al(NO3 )3 · 9H2 O] in deionized water in an appropriate ratio. Before depositing ZnO and AZO films, the substrates were cleaned with acetone, deionized water and finally with propanol in order as described using an ultrasonic bath. A 0.1M aqueous solution of zinc acetate dihydrate in deionized water was used as a spraying solution for depositing the ZnO film. Pyrolysis of an ultrasonically created mist took place at 450 ◦ C on quartz substrates. The deposition was carried out for 45 min resulting in a ZnO film of thickness ∼500 nm. For depositing AZO films, we added a 0.01M aqueous solution of aluminium nitrate [Al(NO3 )3 · 9H2 O] with 1%, 3% and 5% atomic ratio of [Al]/[Zn] in the aqueous solution of zinc acetate dihydrate [Zn(CH3 COO)2 ·2H2 O]. The resultant solution was vigorously stirred and used as a spraying solution for the AZO films. The deposition parameters of the AZO films were kept the same as those for the undoped ZnO film. The AZO films with 1 at%, 3 at% and 5 at% atomic ratio of [Al]/[Zn] were named AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5. Structural characterizations were carried out by x-ray diffraction (XRD). The step size for the XRD measurement was kept as 0.001◦ and the scanning time per step was kept as 0.5 s. The microstructures were examined by atomic force microscopy. The optical absorption spectra were recorded in the wavelength range 350–600 nm using a UV–Vis spectrophotometer. The PL spectra were recorded in the wavelength range 350–620 nm with a photoluminescence spectrometer using 325 nm of excitation wavelength obtained from a xenon lamp. The core level spectra of Zn and O for the ZnO and AZO films were studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Figure 1. XRD patterns of ZnO and Al-doped ZnO (AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5) films for 1%, 3% and 5% Al concentrations. ZnO and AZO films can be due to the amorphous substrate (quartz), high solution spray rate and relatively lower substrate temperature. The 2θ values for the (0 0 2) peak for ZnO, AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5 are 34.477◦ , 34.482◦ , 34.490◦ and 34.484◦ , and for the (1 0 0) peak for ZnO, AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5 are 31.815◦ , 31.818◦ , 31.828◦ and 31.822◦ , respectively. The values of the c lattice parameter and a lattice parameter for pure ZnO are found to be 5.198 nm and 3.245 nm which are lower than the c lattice parameter (∼5.206 nm) and a lattice parameter (∼3.249 nm) of stress-free bulk ZnO. Al doping in ZnO films leads to a decrease in the c lattice parameter and a lattice parameter values as compared with the pure ZnO film. The values of lattice parameter decrease for the AZO1 and AZO3 films, and for the AZO5 film, there is an increase in its value as compared with that for AZO3 but it is still lower than the lattice parameters of pure ZnO film. The change in the c lattice parameter is found to be more as compared with the change in a lattice parameter of the ZnO/AZO films with respect to the stress-free bulk ZnO. The ionic radii of Al3+ and Zn2+ are 0.53 Å and 0.60 Å, respectively. Thus, the addition of Al atoms in the ZnO matrix is expected to shorten the c lattice parameter if Al atoms get substituted at the Zn sites. The difference in c value of ZnO and stress-free bulk ZnO indicates the presence of stress in the as-grown ZnO film. For hexagonal lattice the linear stress components (σx , σy and σz ) are given by [17] σx C11 C12 C13 ea (1) σy = C12 C11 C13 eb , σz C13 C13 C33 ec where Cii are the elastic stiffness constant (C11 = 2.1 × 1011 N m−2 , C12 = 1.2 × 1011 N m−2 , C13 = 1.05 × 1011 N m−2 and C33 = 2.1 × 1011 N m−2 ) and ea , eb and ec are the linear strain along the a-, b- and c-axis, respectively. For hexagonal lattice a = b therefore, strain along the a-axis will be equal to the strain along the b-axis i.e. ea = eb . The total stress in the film can be expressed as 3. Results and discussion 3.1. Structural properties Figure 1 shows the XRD patterns of the ZnO and AZO films, in which peaks corresponding to the (1 0 0), (0 0 2), (1 0 1), (1 0 2) and (1 1 0) planes are observed which confirm the wurtzite structure of ZnO. The observed polycrystalline nature of the σ = (σx + σy + σz ), 2 (2) J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 465402 B K Sharma and N Khare Figure 2. Variation of stress as a function of different wt% of Al doping in ZnO films. where σx , σy and σz can be calculated using equations σx = C11 ea + C12 eb + C13 ec , (3) σy = C12 ea + C11 eb + C13 ec , (4) σz = C13 ea + C13 eb + C33 ec . (5) Strains along the a-, b- and c-axis can be calculated by a − a0 ea = eb = a0 and ec = c − c0 c0 (6) Figure 3. (a) Optical absorption spectra of ZnO and AZO films, (b) plot of (αhν)2 versus photon energy (hν) for ZnO and AZO films. Inset shows the variation of band gap of ZnO films with different Al concentrations. , (7) 3.2. Optical absorption studies where a0 and c0 are the lattice parameters of stress-free bulk ZnO whereas a and c are the lattice parameters of the ZnO or AZO thin films. Using equations (2)–(7), the stress in the ZnO and AZO films was calculated. The variation of stress (σ ) with the increase in Al doping in ZnO is shown in figure 2. The value of σ for the pure ZnO film is obtained as 17.98 × 108 N m−2 . For the AZO1 and AZO3 films the stress value increases while for AZO5 it decreases, but it was still higher as compared with the stress in the undoped ZnO film. It seems that there is a critical value for Al% in ZnO up to which stress increases and above which it decreases. Above this critical value, the Al atoms, rather than substituting at the Zn sites, may go to the interstitial sites and the c lattice parameter shows an increase as compared with the AZO3 film. The total stress in the film mainly consists of two components: one is the intrinsic stress introduced by the doping and defects during the growth, and the other is the extrinsic stress introduced by the mismatch in lattice constants and thermal expansion coefficients of the film and the substrate. In the present case, the growth temperature of the substrates is kept the same for all the ZnO and AZO films, therefore the intrinsic stress originating from the thermal mismatch between films and substrates is expected to have the same magnitude for all the films. Thus, the observed change in stress in the Al-doped ZnO films is mainly from the doping of Al and change in the defects of the ZnO films. Figure 3(a) shows the optical absorption spectra of pure ZnO and Al-doped ZnO films in the wavelength range 350– 600 nm. The decrease in absorption for the Al-doped ZnO films as compared with the undoped ZnO film indicates that the transparency of the ZnO film increases due to the incorporation of Al in ZnO. The fundamental absorption corresponding to the direct electronic transition from the valence band to the conduction band is usually used to determine the optical band gap for direct band gap semiconductors. The value of absorption coefficient (α) for a direct band gap semiconductor is expressed as A(hν − Eg )1/2 , (8) α= hν where A is a constant, hν is the photon energy and Eg is the band gap for the direct band gap semiconductor. The optical band gap for the ZnO and Al-doped ZnO films is determined by plotting (αhν)2 as a function of photon energy hν, and extrapolating the linear region of (αhν)2 to the energy axis where (αhν)2 corresponds to zero. Figure 3(b) shows the plot of (αhν)2 as a function of photon energy (hν) for the ZnO and AZO films. From these plots, the value of band gap for the ZnO, AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5 films are obtained as 3.19 eV, 3.26 eV, 3.27 eV and 3.24 eV, respectively. The inset of figure 3(b) shows the variation of band gap of the AZO films 3 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 465402 B K Sharma and N Khare Figure 4. Normalized PL spectra of ZnO and AZO films. Inset (a) shows the blow-up part of UV emission and inset (b) shows the blow-up part of defect peaks for AZO films. as a function of Al% in the ZnO film. Initially, the value of band gap increases for the Al-doped ZnO films up to 3% of Al doping and then it decreases for 5% Al doping. The observation of blue shift in the band gap of Al-doped ZnO films has been reported earlier also [10–12] and this has been attributed to the BM shift. The carrier concentration for observing the BM shift [18] should be 3.0 × 1019 cm−3 . In the present case, using Hall measurements, we found the carrier concentrations for the AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5 films as ≈1.7 × 1017 cm−3 , ≈2.0 × 1018 cm−3 and 6.3 × 1017 cm−3 , respectively, which is much lower than the critical carrier concentration required for producing BM shift in the band gap of AZO films. Thus in the present case, the observed blue shift in the band gap of the AZO films cannot be attributed to the BM shift. We notice that the trend of change in Eg with Al doping is similar to the change in stress in the AZO films. The stress in the AZO films increases as the Al% is increased up to 3% and it decreases as the Al% is further increased to 5%. The band gap of the AZO films also shows an increase as the Al% is increased up to 3%, and afterwards it shows a decrease. Thus, the increase in the band gap of the AZO films seems to be related to the enhanced stress. Figure 5. (a) PL spectra of pure ZnO film in the visible region and three deconvoluted Gaussian curves (shown by dotted lines). Open circles show the experimental points and solid lines show the sum of the three deconvoluted Gaussian curves, (b) variation of relative contributions of Zni , VO and Oi defects with different Al%. causes red shifts in the defect-related peak. The red shift in the defect-related PL peak of the Al-doped ZnO films indicate the variation of relative contribution of different possible defects in the AZO films. In order to find out the relative contribution of the possible defects in the PL spectra of the ZnO and AZO films for the visible region, a deconvolution method has been employed [19, 20]. The most probable defects in intrinsically grown ZnO are zinc interstitials (Zni ) and oxygen vacancies (VO ). These defects are responsible for n-type conductivity in undoped ZnO. In addition to these, other defects such as oxygen interstitials (Oi ), vacancies of zinc (VZn ), oxygen sitting at Zn site (OZn ), are also possible. The defect peak of ZnO is deconvoluted into three Gaussian peaks centred at ∼480, ∼520 and ∼560 nm, as shown in figure 5(a). The deconvoluted Gaussian peak centred at ∼480 nm is attributed to the transition from Zni to VZn which gives the luminescence corresponding to the wavelength ∼480 nm [21]. The deconvoluted Gaussian peak centred at ∼520 nm is attributed to the luminescence originating from the conduction band minimum to VO [22] and the deconvoluted Gaussian peak centred at ∼560 nm is attributed to the luminescence originating from the conduction band minimum to Oi [23]. A similar deconvolution analysis was done for the AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5 films. Figure 5(b) shows the relative contributions of Zni , VO and Oi defects in the visible region of the PL spectrum as a function of Al%. In 3.3. PL studies Figure 4 shows the room temperature PL spectra of the ZnO and AZO films. All the films exhibit an excitonic peak in the ultraviolet (UV) region and a defect-related peak in the visible region. The excitonic peak in pure ZnO film shows a blue shift with Al doping (inset (a) of figure 4). In the visible region, the pure ZnO film exhibits a broad peak centred around ∼502 nm related to the defects which is suppressed for the AZO films. In the AZO films, the defects are still present but their concentrations are much less as compared with the pure ZnO film. For the AZO1, AZO3 and AZO5 films, the defect-related peaks are centred at 530 nm, 540 nm and 525 nm, respectively (inset (b) of figure 4). This indicates that in addition to suppressing the defects, Al doping in ZnO also 4 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 465402 B K Sharma and N Khare Figure 6. Gaussian fitted XPS spectra of Zn 2p3/2 core level of (a) ZnO and (b) AZO1 and deconvoluted XPS spectra of O 1s core level of (c) ZnO and (d) AZO1 films. the pure ZnO film, Zni and VO defects mainly contribute to the defect-related PL peak. For a doping of Al up to 3%, the Zni and VO defects decrease whereas the Oi defects increase. For 5% Al doping the contribution from Zni and VO defects is more as compared with that in the AZO3 film while contribution from Oi defects decreases. However, in the 5% Al-doped film also the contribution of Zni and VO is less as compared with the pure ZnO film. This indicates that doping of Al in ZnO leads to a reduction of Zni and VO defects and increases the Oi defects. It seems that the presence of Al in the ZnO matrix changes the defect equilibria leading to the suppression of Zni and VO and enhancement of Oi defects. The presence of Al in the ZnO matrix may enhance the diffusion of oxygen due to the presence of Oi defects [24] which can result in the change in defect equilibria in AZO films. The c lattice parameter of the ZnO film is related to the Zni defects present in the film and the reduction of Zni defects leads to a reduction in the c parameter [25]. In our case, we have also observed that Al doping leads to a suppression of Zni defects and this is expected to result in the reduction of the c lattice parameter as we have observed in the XRD studies of the Al-doped ZnO films. Thus, there seems to be a correlation between the decrease in Zni defects and increase in stress in the Al-doped ZnO films. ZnO and AZO1 films. The core level peak of Zn 2p3/2 for the ZnO and AZO1 films can be fitted by a single Gaussian peak, which is centred at 1022.3 eV. The symmetric nature of the fitted Gaussian peaks for Zn 2p3/2 indicates that in the ZnO and AZO1 films most of the Zn atoms remain in the same formal valence state of Zn2+ within the oxygen deficient ZnO1−x matrix. The core level peak of O 1s for the ZnO and AZO1 films is deconvoluted into two Gaussian peaks as shown in figures 6(c) and (d), respectively. The deconvoluted Gaussian peaks of the O 1s core level peak for the ZnO and AZO1 films are centred at 530.1 eV and 531.6 eV which are attributed to O2− ions bonded with Zn2+ in the ZnO phase [26] and oxygen vacancies (VO ) related defects [27], respectively. The relative contributions of O2− ions bonded with Zn2+ in the ZnO phase and VO -related defects for the pure ZnO film are found to be 60% and 40%, respectively. In the AZO1 film, the relative contributions of O2− ions bonded with Zn2+ ions in the ZnO phase and VO -related defects are found to be 70% and 30%, respectively. This indicates that the relative contribution of VO -related defects decreases in the Al-doped ZnO film. This is similar to what we have observed in the PL study of the ZnO and AZO films (section 3.3). 3.4. XPS study In conclusion, Al-doped ZnO thin films have been synthesized using ultrasonically assisted chemical vapour deposition. The presence of stress has been found in the undoped ZnO film, which increases after Al doping up to 3% in ZnO films and then decreases for 5% Al doping. A blue shift in the band gap of Al-doped ZnO films is observed which has been attributed 4. Conclusions XPS measurements of the ZnO and AZO1 films were carried out to investigate the effect of Al doping on defects in ZnO. Figures 6(a) and (b) show the core level peaks of Zn 2p3/2 and figures 6(c) and (d) show the core level peaks of O 1s for the 5 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 43 (2010) 465402 B K Sharma and N Khare to an increase in stress present in ZnO after Al doping. The presence of Al in the ZnO matrix changes the defect equilibria leading to a suppression of Zni and VO and enhancement of Oi defects. The enhancement of oxygen interstitial defects is responsible for the red shift of the defect-related PL peak in the AZO1 and AZO3 films. The increase in stress in the AZO films may be attributed to the decrease in Zni defect concentrations after Al doping in ZnO films. [9] Makino T, Tamura K, Chia CH, Segawa Y, Kawasaki M, Ohtomo A and Koinuma H 2002 Phys. Status Solidi b 229 853 [10] Lu J G et al 2007 J. Appl. 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