Optical properties of antimony-implanted ZnO epilayers

Antimony ions were implanted into ZnO films grown on c-plane sapphire by pulsed-laser deposition. Raman scattering modes of the Sb-implanted samples were found to be influenced by the implantation dose. A characteristic peak at 576 cm^− 1 was observed with an asymmetric shape due to ion damage to the lattice of the implanted ZnO films. When the implant dose was low, the height of the peak was reduced by rapid thermal annealing at 400-600 °C and the symmetry of the spectra was recovered. However, when the Sb dose exceeded 1 × 10¹⁵ cm^− 2, the peak maintained unchanged after rapid thermal annealing at temperatures up to 600 °C. A broad and low Raman peak was observed at 437 cm^− 1, which is related to the surface damage caused by the energetic ion bombarding. Photoluminescence measurement showed a decrease of the bandedge emission at 3.36 eV, a clear effect of defects induced by the implantation, and confirmed partial recovery of the crystal by rapid annealing.