First-principles study of vacancy-assisted impurity diffusion in ZnO

Abstract

Group-III elements act as donors in ZnO when incorporated on the Zn site. Their incorporation and behavior upon annealing is governed by diffusion, which proceeds mainly through a vacancy-assisted process. We report first-principles calculations for the migration of Al, Ga, and In donors in ZnO, based on density functional theory using a hybrid functional. From the calculated migration barriers and formation energies, we determine diffusion activation energies and estimate annealing temperatures. Impurity-vacancy binding energies and migration barriers decrease from Al to In. Activation energies for vacancy-assisted diffusion are lowest for In and highest for Al.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2014
Source ID
10.1063/1.4894195

Entities

People

  • Anderson Janotti
  • Chris G. Van de Walle
  • Daniel Steiauf
  • John L. Lyons

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • University of California

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Quantum Chemistry
  • Semiconductor Device Technology