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Characterization of quaternary Zn/Sn-codoped GaN films obtained with Zn x Sn0.04GaN targets at different Zn contents by the RF reactive magnetron sputtering technology

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Abstract

Quarternary (Zn, Sn, Ga)N thin films with co-existing a large amount of acceptor and donor were purposely fabricated in order to heavily distort the GaN lattice and to extend the degenerated GaN semiconductor to a different aspect. The ZnSnGaN films were made of reactive sputtering with single cermet targets containing Zn, Sn, Ga, and GaN under the nitridation atmosphere. By varying the Zn content at fixed 4% Sn content, different Zn x Sn0.04Ga0.96−xN targets at x = 0, 0.03, 0.06, and 0.09 were prepared for Zn/Sn-x-GaN films. With increasing the Zn content, Zn/Sn-x-GaN due to the charge compensation changed from semiconducting n type to p type, and from high electron concentration of 4.1 × 1017 cm−3 to high hole concentration of 3.3 × 1017 cm−3. The optical band gap changed from 3.12 to 2.89 eV, related to the formation in ZnGa acceptor and SnGa donor defects. The hetero- and homo-junction diodes were fabricated. The n-Zn0.03Sn0.04GaN/p-Zn0.09Sn0.04GaN homo-junction diode tested at 25 °C had the turn-on voltage of 0.9 V, leakage current density of 6.0×10−5 A/cm2 at − 1 V, breakdown voltage of 4.7 V, current density of 2.4 × 10−2 A/cm2 at 5 V, ideality factor of 3.4, and barrier height of 0.65 eV.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of China under Grant Number MOST 104-2221-E-011-169-MY3.

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  1. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, 10607, Taiwan

    Dong-Hau Kuo & Yen-Tzu Liu

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  1. Dong-Hau Kuo
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  2. Yen-Tzu Liu
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Correspondence to Dong-Hau Kuo.

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Kuo, DH., Liu, YT. Characterization of quaternary Zn/Sn-codoped GaN films obtained with Zn x Sn0.04GaN targets at different Zn contents by the RF reactive magnetron sputtering technology. J Mater Sci 53, 9099–9106 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2202-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-018-2202-y

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