Speaker
Mr
Nirawith Palakawong
(School of Physics and NANOTEC-SUT Center of Excellence on Advanced Functional Nanomaterials, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok 10400, Thailand)
Description
SnO$_2$ is an oxide semiconductor with wide band gap, good transparency, and high thermal and chemical resistances. As-grown SnO$_2$ usually exhibits $\textit{n}$-type conductivity with high carrier concentrations, which is an obstacle to make it $\textit{p}$-type. Consequently, applications of SnO$_2$ for optoelectronics are limited. Group-III elements, such as Al, Ga, and In, are candidates to give $\textit{p}$-type conductivity when substituting for Sn in SnO$_2$. Earlier calculations suggested that the calculated results of these dopants can be shallow or deep depending on the computational details, i.e., the result based on HSE calculations [Phys. Rev. B $\textbf{79}$, 245206 (2009)] showed that they are shallow acceptors, on the other hand, PBE0 calculations [J. Mater. Chem. $\textbf{22}$, 25236 (2012)] showed that they are all deep. In this work, the possibility of making $\textit{p}$-type SnO$_2$ by Ga was revisited using the HSE functional. Our results show that the acceptor level of Ga$_\mathrm{Sn}$ is actually deep. Therefore, Ga can only serve as compensating acceptor but not a $\textit{p}$-type dopant for SnO$_2$. This conclusion does not change even after the alloying of SnO$_2$ with Si (Si$_x$Sn$_{1-x}$O$_2$ where $x \sim$ 0.17) to introduce a compressive strain.
Primary author
Mr
Nirawith Palakawong
(School of Physics and NANOTEC-SUT Center of Excellence on Advanced Functional Nanomaterials, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok 10400, Thailand)
Co-authors
Dr
Jiraroj T-Thienprasert
(Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand)
Prof.
Shengbai Zhang
(Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA)
Prof.
Sukit Limpijumnong
(School of Physics and NANOTEC-SUT Center of Excellence on Advanced Functional Nanomaterials, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakhon Ratchasima 30000, Thailand; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok 10400, Thailand)
Dr
Yiyang Sun
(Department of Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York 12180, USA)
