Reproducible Sb-doped p-type ZnO films were grown on n-Si (100) by electron-cyclotron-resonance-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. The existence of Sb in ZnO:Sb films was confirmed by low-temperature photoluminescence measurements. An acceptor-bound exciton (A°X) emission was observed at 3.358 eV at 8 K. The acceptor energy level of the Sb dopant is estimated to be 0.2 eV above the valence band. Temperature-dependent Hall measurements were performed on Sb-doped ZnO films. At room temperature, one Sb-doped ZnO sample exhibited a low resistivity of 0.2Ωcm, high hole concentration of 1.7×1018cm−3 and high mobility of 20.0cm2∕Vs. This study suggests that Sb is an excellent dopant for reliable and reproducible p-type ZnO fabrication.

We investigated photoluminescence ͑PL͒ from reliable and reproducible Sb-doped p-type ZnO films grown on n-Si ͑100͒ by molecular-beam epitaxy. Well-resolved PL spectra were obtained from completely dopant-activated samples with hole concentrations above 1.0ϫ 10 18 cm −3. From free electron to acceptor transitions, acceptor binding energy of 0.14 eV is determined, which is in good agreement with analytical results of the temperature-dependent PL measurements. Another broad peak at 3.050 eV, which shifts to lower energy at higher temperatures, indicates the formation of deep acceptor level bands related to Zn vacancies, which are created by Sb doping.

ZnO p-n homojunction light emitting diodes were fabricated based on p-type Sb-doped ZnO∕n-type Ga-doped ZnO thin films. Low resistivity Au∕NiO and Au∕Ti contacts were formed on top of p-type and n-type ZnO layers, respectively. Au∕NiO contacts on p-type ZnO exhibited a low specific resistivity of 7.4×10−4Ωcm2. The light emitting diodes yielded strong near-band-edge emissions in temperature-dependent and injection current-dependent electroluminescence measurements.