Electrical characterization of 1.8 MeV proton-bombarded ZnO

We report on the electrical characterization of single-crystal ZnO and Au Schottky contacts formed thereon before and after bombarding them with 1.8 MeV protons. From capacitance-voltage measurements, we found that ZnO is remarkably resistant to high-energy proton bombardment and that each incident proton removes about two orders of magnitude less carriers than in GaN. Deep level transient spectroscopy indicates a similar effect: the two electron traps detected are introduced in extremely low rates. One possible interpretation of these results is that the primary radiation-induced defects in ZnO may be unstable at room temperature and anneal out without leaving harmful defects that are responsible for carrier compensation. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.