Origin of conductive surface layer in annealed ZnO

The highly conductive surface layers found in nearly all as-grown or annealed bulk ZnO wafers are studied by temperature-dependent Hall-effect and secondary-ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements. In this work, we have used annealing in N2 at 900°C, and forming gas (5% H2 in N2) at 600°C, to cause a large enough surface conduction that SIMS measurements can be reliably employed. The increased near-surface donor density, as determined from two-layer Hall-effect modeling, is consistent with an increased near-surface concentration of Al, Ga, and In atoms, resulting from diffusion. There is no evidence for participation of any donors involving H.