Radiation hardness of single‐crystalline zinc oxide films

Abstract

Abstract Zinc oxide (ZnO) is a potential semiconductor to exhibit high radiation hardness since large threshold displacement energy for damage can be expected due to the small unit‐cell volume and large bandgap energy. In order to study the radiation hardness, single‐crystalline c ‐axis‐oriented ZnO films with and without two‐dimensional electron gas, and bulk crystals of ZnO and gallium nitride (GaN) for comparison, were irradiated with 8 MeV protons at the wide range of fluences from 2×10 13 to 1×10 17 p/cm 2 . For both ZnO films, decrease of luminescence intensity followed by increase of electrical resistance was observed at larger fluences than ∼5×10 14 p/cm 2 . This threshold fluence was found to be much larger and larger than those of GaN and ZnO bulk crystals, respectively, indicating that ZnO thin films should be useful for such device applications as the electronics for space satellites and nuclear reactors. (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)