The electrical, optical and magnetic properties of Si-doped ZnO films

In this paper, the influences of Si-doping on electrical, optical and magnetic properties of ZnO films have been systematically investigated. It is found that the resistivity of the films decreases from 3.0 × 103 to 6.2 × 10–2 Ωcm with Si-doping due to the increase of carrier concentration. The bandgap of ZnO films increases from 3.28 to 3.52 eV with increasing of Si concentration, which is found to be due to the collective effects of bandgap narrowing and Burstein–Moss effect induced by high carrier concentration. With increase of Si concentration, the near band edge (NBE) emission decreases due to the deterioration of crystal quality, while the yellow emission enhances due to the increase of extrinsic impurity or defects. The additional Si-doping has a profound influence on the enhancement of magnetic property and the maximum magnetic moment of 2.6 μB/Si is obtained. The ferromagnetic ordering is seen to be correlated with carrier concentration and structural defects.