Plasma-Assisted Epitaxial Growth of P-Type ZnSe in Nitrogen-Based Plasma

P-type ZnSe films have been successfully grown by plasma-assisted epitaxy in nitrogen-based plasma, and the resistivity of the film was reduced to the order of 10 Ωcm at room temperature. With a relatively low nitrogen gas flow rate of around 0.073 sccm, low-temperature photoluminescence intensities of donor-acceptor pair emission and acceptor-bound exciton emission from N-doped ZnSe were maximum with negligible deep-level emission at the partial pressure ratio PN2/(PH2+PN2) of around 80%. Atomic nitrogen generated by the Penning effect around this partial pressure ratio was observed. It has been suggested that, while hydrogen improves the electronic property of ZnSe layers, excessive hydrogen can reduce the doping efficiency of shallow-acceptor nitrogen.