The influence of high energy proton bombardment on the electrical and defect properties of single-crystal ZnO

We report on the electrical and defect characterization of Au Schottky diodes formed on single-crystal ZnO, before and after irradiating with high-energy (1.8 MeV) protons. Prior to bombardment we observed that several electron traps (E1-E4), with energies between 0.10 and 0.57 eV below the conduction band, are present in the ZnO. High-energy proton bombardment introduces two electron traps (Ep1 and Ep2), with extremely low introduction rates (η) of 2.4 and 1.9 cm-1, respectively. Schottky barrier properties such as the reverse leakage current deteriorated from 1×10-9 A for an unirradiated diode to 1×10-6 A after bombarding it with a dose of 4.2×1014 cm-2 protons. Compared to GaN we found that ZnO is remarkably resistant to high-energy proton bombardment.

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