Structural and transport properties of cubic spinel ZnCo2O4 thin films grown by reactive magnetron sputtering

We report on the growth of cubic spinel ZnCo2O4 thin films by reactive magnetron sputtering and bipolarity of their conduction type by tuning of oxygen partial pressure ratio in the sputtering gas mixture. Crystal structure of zinc cobalt oxide films sputtered in an oxygen partial pressure ratio of 90% was found to change from wurtzite Zn1−xCoxO to spinel ZnCo2O4 with an increase of the sputtering power ratio between the Co and Zn metal targets, DCo/DZn, from 0.1 to 2.2. For a fixed DCo/DZn of 2.0 yielding single-phase spinel ZnCo2O4 films, the conduction type was found to be dependent on the oxygen partial pressure ratio: n-type and p-type for the oxygen partial pressure ratio below ∼70% and above ∼85%, respectively. The electron and hole concentrations for the ZnCo2O4 films at 300 K were as high as 1.37×1020 and 2.81×1020 cm−3, respectively, with a mobility of more than 0.2 cm2/V s and a conductivity of more than 1.8 S cm−1.