Structural, surface, and electrical properties of nitrogen ion implanted ZnTe epilayers

P-type ZnTe epilayers grown on GaAs (001) by molecular beam epitaxy have been achieved by N ions implantation, and reached a doping level of more than 1 \(\times \) 10\(^{18}\) cm\(^{-3}\). X-ray diffraction spectra suggest that increasing the post-implantation annealing temperature can promote the N ions occupying substitutional sites and help to remove the radiation damage.The hole concentration rises with annealing temperature, while the lowest resistivity and the highest mobility can be obtained by annealing at 450 \(^{\circ }\)C for 5 min. Annealing for 1 min cannot obtain low resistivity. Fabricating ZnTe films with a lower VI/II beam equivalent pressure ratio results in an enhancement in hole concentration and a drop of mobility.In addition, p-ZnTe/n-GaAs and p-ZnTe/n-ZnSe/n-GaAs junctions show better rectifying behaviour after ion implantation.