Effect of Al and Mn doping on the electrical conductivity of ZnO

Samples of Al-doped and Mn-doped ZnO with a doping level up to 1.2 mol% were sintered at temperatures from 1100 to 1400°C in air. dc Electrical conductivities of these samples at room temperature and below were measured, and the effects of the doping type, the doping level, the sintering temperature and time on the electrical conductivity of ZnO were investigated. It was found that Al increased the electrical conductivity of ZnO resulting in a manifestation of a metallic electrical conduction behaviour, and a semiconductor-metal transition occured in the Al-doped ZnO samples. For Mn-doped ZnO samples quenched from the sintering temperatures, the electrical conductivity decreased with the increase in the Mn content, but the samples still showed a semiconductor electrical conduction behaviour. In this way, one could obtain a systematic variation of the ZnO electrical conductivity from the high conductivity, Al-doped case, to the high resistivity, Mn-doped one, spanning over eight orders of magnitude, which is explained in the present communication.