The effect of growth temperature on nitrogen incorporation into ZnO film grown on Al2O3 substrate

Nitrogen-doped ZnO films grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (P-MBE) have been investigated in terms of growth temperatures (300-800 °C). The growth rate of nitrogen-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) film decreases as growth temperature increases from 500 up to 700 °C since Zn-N bonds decompose. When nitrogen atoms are incorporated to be ∼1021/cm3 at low growth temperature of 300 °C, it is observed the significant decrease of carrier concentration down to ∼1016/cm3 and the abrupt increase of resistivity up to ∼60 Ω cm. However, p-type conductivity is not realized due to the formation of N-H bond.