Strain-engineered modulation on the electronic properties of phosphorous-doped ZnO

Effect of Strain and Surface Proximity on the Acceptor Grouping in ZnO

According to the present knowledge, the level of zinc oxide conductivity is determined by donor and acceptor complexes involving native defects and hydrogen. In turn, recently published low-temperature cathodoluminescence images and scanning photoelectron microscopy results on ZnO and ZnO/N films indicate grouping of acceptor and donor complexes in different crystallites, but the origin of this phenomenon remains unclear. The density functional theory calculations on undoped ZnO presented here show that strain and surface proximity noticeably influence the formation energy of acceptor complexes, and therefore, these complexes can be more easily formed in crystallites providing appropriate strain. This effect may be responsible for the clustering of acceptor centers only in certain crystallites or near the surface. Low-temperature photoluminescence spectra confirm the strong dependence of acceptor luminescence on the structure of the ZnO film.

Magnetism tuned by the charge states of defects in bulk C-doped SnO2 materials

By changing charge states, we can modulate the Bader charge distributions, atomic orbital occupancies and thus the spin-polarization in bulk SnO₂:C systems.