Properties of nitrogen implanted and electron beam annealed bulk ZnO

The optical properties of bulk ZnO ion implanted with nitrogen ions, at an energy of 23 keV have been studied as a function of implantation fluence and electron beam (EB) annealing conditions. Nuclear reaction analysis and Raman results have revealed the implanted N concentration and its structural changes with respect to various nitrogen ion fluences. The optical properties of nitrogen implanted bulk ZnO were investigated by low temperature photoluminescence measurements. An enhanced peak at 3.235 eV has been attributed to donor-accepter pair (DAP) emission involving the implanted N acceptor in ZnO. The emission near 3.3085 eV is attributed to a free electron to acceptor transition. We also report a broad band emission feature at ∼3.09 eV in the nitrogen implanted with 1–2×1015 ions cm−2 and EB annealed at 800–900 °C. This is assigned to a thermally activated nitrogen acceptor transition as it is unique only to nitrogen implanted samples. An ionization energy of 377 meV indicates that this line may correspond to a significantly less shallow acceptor level. In addition an increase in the intensity and dominance of this DAP line in nitrogen implanted samples over the other acceptor transitions was observed with increasing annealing time and temperatures. It is shown that EB annealing offers a method of enhanced nitrogen activation when compared to a more conventional furnace approach.