Correlation between nitrogen and carbon incorporation into MOVPE ZnO at various oxidizing conditions

Nitrogen-doped ZnO films with preferential (0 0 0 1) orientation were synthesized on c-Al2O3 and Si substrates by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) using tertiary butanol (t-BuOH) and/or N2O as oxidizers for diethylzinc (DEZ). A striking correlation between nitrogen and carbon incorporation into ZnO was revealed by concentration versus depth profiling employing secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), consistently with recently reported simulations of nitrogen–carbon complexing.