Abstract
Phosphorus-doped ZnO (ZnO:P) films were grown on quartz substrate by radiofrequency magnetron sputtering technique using mixture gas of Ar and O2 with different mass ratios, and then the films were annealed rapidly in air ambient, the properties of ZnO:P film and p-type mechanism were investigated. A stable p type ZnO:P film was obtained by using the mixture gas with mass ratio of Ar to O2 of 1 to 0·05 at a temperature of 750°C in air ambient, which had a resistivity of 59·75∼59·86 Ωcm, a hole concentration of 2·34 × 1017∼2·11 × 1018 cm− 3 and a mobility of 0·05∼0·47 cm2 V− 1 s− 1 respectively. The shallow acceptor level was estimated to be located at 113∼125 meV above the valence band. The formation mechanism of p type ZnO:P film was related to the PZn–2VZn complex acceptors. The p-n homojunction showed typical rectification behaviour.