Investigation on a source of dominant donor in vanadium-doped ZnO films grown by reactive RF magnetron sputtering

The influences of O₂ gas addition in argon plasma on reactive RF magnetron sputtering deposition of vanadium-doped ZnO (VZO) films were examined. ZnO or VZO films with vanadium concentration of 2 at% were deposited on a quartz substrate. Vanadium doping caused oxygen deficiency in ZnO and formed a large number of zinc interstitials (Zn_i), oxygen vacancies (V_O), and zinc vacancies (V_Zn). Carrier density of VZO decreased from 9×10²⁰ to 9×10¹⁸ cm⁻³ between O₂ partial pressure ratio (α_O2) of 0.6% and 1.0% in spite of the increase in valence number of vanadium. This result suggests that Zn_i is the dominant donor in VZO since Zn_i is a shallow-level defect. Average optical transmittance (T_v) at wavelength between 450 and 800 nm of VZO was 61% while that of ZnO was 82% without oxygen addition. Although the optical transmittance of VZO was largely deteriorated by optical absorption of V_O, T_v of VZO improved by oxygen addition and reached 85% at α_O2 of 1.0% via suppression of V_O formation.