Bismuth doped ZnSe films fabricated on silicon substrates by pulsed laser deposition

The preparation of bismuth doped ZnSe films on silicon (1 0 0) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is reported. Bismuth was used as a p-type dopant source material for ZnSe. The stable p-type films with hole carrier concentration of about 1016–1018 cm−3 were obtained. By scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD), it was found that the ambient pressure during film deposition has much to do with the morphology and crystallinity of the as-deposited products. The presence of Bi in the Bi-doped ZnSe films was confirmed by the X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and the possibility of a BiZn–2VZn complex forming a shallow acceptor level was discussed.