Electrical properties and emission mechanisms of Zn-doped β-Ga2O3 films

• The Zn-doped β-Ga2O3 films were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition (PLD).
• The Zn dopants obviously change the electrical characteristic and recombination processes of β-Ga2O3 films.
• The energy levels of the self-trapped hole, donor VO and acceptor ZnGa in Zn-doped β-Ga2O3 films are revealed.

We study the electrical properties and emission mechanisms of Zn-doped β-Ga2O3 film grown by pulsed laser deposition through Hall effect and cathodoluminescence which consist of ultraviolet luminescence (UV), blue luminescence (BL) and green luminescence (GL) bands. The Hall effect measurements indicate that the carrier concentration increases from 7.16×1011 to 6.35×1012 cm−3 with increasing a nominal Zn content from 3 to 7 at%. The UV band at 272 nm is not attributed to Zn dopants and ascribed as radiative electron transition from conduction band to a self-trapped hole while the BL band is attributable to defect level related to Zn dopant. The BL band has two emission peaks at 415 and 455 nm, which are ascribed to the radiative electron transition from oxygen vacancy (VO) to valence band and recombination of a donor–acceptor pair (DAP) between VO donor and Zn on Ga site (ZnGa) acceptor, respectively. The GL band is attributed to the phonon replicas’ emission of the DAP. The acceptor level of ZnGa is estimated to be 0.26 eV above the valence band maximum. The transmittance and absorption spectra prove that the Zn-doped β-Ga2O3 film is a dominantly direct bandgap material. The results of Hall and cathodoluminescence measurements imply that the Zn dopant in β-Ga2O3 film will form an acceptor ZnGa to produce p-type conductivity.