Production of nitrogen acceptors in ZnO by thermal annealing

Nitrogen acceptors are formed when undoped single crystals of zinc oxide (ZnO) grown by the chemical-vapor transport method are annealed in air or nitrogen atmosphere at temperatures between 600 and 900 °C. After an anneal, an induced near-edge absorption band causes the crystals to appear yellow. Also, the concentration of neutral shallow donors, as monitored by electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR), is significantly reduced. A photoinduced EPR signal due to neutral nitrogen acceptors is observed when the annealed crystals are exposed to laser light (e.g., 364, 442, 458, or 514 nm) at low temperature. The nitrogens are initially in the nonparamagnetic singly ionized state (N−) in an annealed crystal, because of the large number of shallow donors, and the light converts a portion of them to the paramagnetic neutral acceptor state (N0).