Effect of Nitrogen and Oxygen on the Growth of RF-Sputtered ZnO Films

This honors project examines the effect of the addition of nitrogen and oxygen on the electrical and optical properties of RF-sputtered ZnO films. Nitrogen has been reported to act as an acceptor in ZnO. However, producing low resistivity, stable p-type ZnO films is in general a difficult task. In this work, films having dark resistivities between 10(-3) and 10 (8) ohm cm have been deposited, depending on gas and target composition. Seebeck and Hall Effect measurements give inconclusive results about the majority carrier type of the films. However, the more resistive films exhibit a surprising photoconductive effect