Persistent Photoconductivity in electron-irradiated ZnO bulk single crystals: Evaluation of the metastable conductive state by the dual light illumination

Persistent Photoconductivity (PPC) in 30 MeV electron-irradiated n-type ZnO single crystals is studied under the dual light illumination (DLI: the infrared light excitation after the blue illumination). Below 160 K, the remarkable reduction in PPC is observed by the subsequent infrared illumination, suggesting the release of electrons from the perturbed-host state (PHS) as a metastable conductive state to the nonconductive state ( V O + and/or V O 0 ) via the higher unoccupied states inside the conduction band. Above 160 K, the slight increase in photocurrent is observed by the subsequent illumination, suggesting the photoexcitation of electrons not relevant to the PHS. These results depend on the electron concentration in the PHS.