Growth of highly doped p-type ZnTe films by pulsed laser ablation in molecular nitrogen

Abstract

Highly p-doped ZnTe films have been grown on semi-insulating GaAs (001) substrates by pulsed-laser ablation (PLA) of a stoichiometric ZnTe target in a high-purity N{sub 2} ambient without the use of any assisting (DC or AC) plasma source. Free hole concentrations in the mid-10{sup 19} cm{sup {minus}3} to > 10{sup 20} cm{sup {minus}3} range were obtained for a range of nitrogen pressures The maximum hole concentration equals the highest hole doping reported to date for any wide band gap II-VI compound. The highest hole mobilities were attained for nitrogen pressures of 50--100 mTorr ({approximately}6.5-13 Pa). Unlike recent experiments in which atomic nitrogen beams, extracted from RF and DC plasma sources, were used to produce p-type doping during molecular beam epitaxy deposition, spectroscopic measurements carried out during PLA of ZnTe in N{sub 2} do not reveal the presence of atomic nitrogen. This suggests that the high hole concentrations in laser ablated ZnTe are produced by a new and different mechanism, possibly energetic beam-induced reactions with excited molecular nitrogen adsorbed on the growing film surface, or transient formation of Zn-N complexes in the energetic ablation plume. This appears to be the first time that any wide band gap (Eg > 2 eV) II-VI compound (or other) semiconductor has been impurity-doped from the gas phase by laser ablation. In combination with the recent discovery that epitaxial ZnSe{sub l-x}S{sub x} films and heterostructures with continuously variable composition can be grown by ablation from a single target of fixed composition, these results appear to open the way to explore PLA growth and doping of compound semiconductors as a possible alternative to molecular beam epitaxy