Comparative photoluminescence study on p-type and n-type ZnO films codoped by nitrogen and aluminium

We report on the temperature-dependent photoluminescence (PL) properties of n-type and p-type ZnO films codoped with N and Al. For the n-type film, the dominant emission at low temperature is exciton bound to neutral donors, while for the p-type film it is exciton bound to neutral acceptor at ∼3.33 eV. Four defect or impurity levels, including N acceptor, residual acceptor, and two doping-induced unknown deep acceptors, were identified. The energy level of the N acceptor was determined to be ∼0.23 eV. Excitation energy dependence of the PL was also investigated. It was found that at high excitation energy, the formation of exciton was suppressed by the formation of D+A−eh complexes.