Raman spectroscopy and x-ray diffraction studies of zinc oxide grown by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

This work reports on the results of a spectroscopic study of Zinc Oxide (ZnO) and manganese doped Zinc Oxide (Zno87Mno.nO). The samples were grown using Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) and were analysed as a function of their anneal conditions. As a wide band gap semiconductor, ZnO, when grown to high quality, has the potential to be used in the fabrication o f short wavelength devices i.e. LED ’s, laser diodes and lasers. In order to investigate the quality o f the samples X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy were employed. These tools gave insight into the crystal structure quality, including the grain size, the lattice parameters and the presence o f surface electric fields. The two probing techniques, Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, complemented each other well and there was a good correlation between the results they produced. A preliminary study o f Zno.g7Mno.13O was also carried out using Raman and XRD. The material grown was shown to be of reasonable quality. Since Mn doping increases the bandgap of ZnO, Zn(i_x)MnxO, has the potential to emit even shorter wavelength radiation. Transition metal doped semiconductors are also being investigated for use in the area of Spintronics. Zn(i.x>MnxO is not yet widely studied so there is scope for further fundamental Raman spectroscopy studies. A paper containing the non-resonant Raman and XRD results of the zinc oxide samples has been submitted to the journal Thin Solid Films