Photocurrent measurements of Mg x Zn 1- x O epitaxial layers of different x

The MgxZn1−xO alloy in wurtzite structure can be grown with Mg contents x up to 0.4. The band gap of the alloy increases with x. Furthermore, ZnO/MgxZn1−xO quantum well structures are of type I and thus are of interest for the active region of opto-electronic devices. We report on in-plane photocurrent measurements of MgxZn1−xO epitaxial layers with x up to about 0.4 in the temperature range from 80 K to 300 K. Epitaxial films are either grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on c-plane sapphire substrates with a thin MgZnO buffer layer and by chemical vapor deposition on a-plane ZnO substrates. We map the evolution of the band gap transitions as a function of the Mg composition at different temperatures for the c-plane samples and as a function of polarization of the incoming light for an a-plane sample. The contributions of A, B and C interband transitions to the band gap signals are analysed and discussed.