Nanostructures and thin films of transparent conductive oxides studied by perturbed angular correlations

• Published in: Physica Status Solidi. B: Basic Solid State Physics Vol. 250; no. 4; pp. 801 - 808
• Main Authors: Barbosa, M. B., Gonçalves, J. N., Redondo-Cubero, A., Miranda, S. M. C., Simon, R., Kessler, P., Brandt, M., Henneberger, F., Nogales, E., Méndez, B., Johnston, K., Alves, E., Vianden, R., Araújo, J. P., Lorenz, K., Correia, J. G.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin WILEY-VCH Verlag 01.04.2013; WILEY‐VCH Verlag
• Subjects: Angular correlation; Annealing; Cadmium; CdZnO; Crystal defects; density functional theory; Ga2O3; ion implantation; lattice location; Nanomaterials; Nanostructure; Nanowires; perturbed angular correlations; Thin films; ZnO
• ISSN: 0370-1972; 1521-3951
• DOI: 10.1002/pssb.201200923

The versatility of perturbed angular correlations (PAC) in the study of nanostructures and thin films is demonstrated, namely for the specific cases of ZnO/CdxZn1−xO thin films and Ga2O3 powder pellets and nanowires, examples of transparent conductive oxides. PAC measurements as a function of annealing temperature were performed after implantation of 111mCd/111Cd (T1/2 = 48 min) and later compared to density functional theory simulations. For ZnO, the substitution of Cd probes at Zn sites was observed, as well as the formation of a probe‐defect complex. The ternary CdxZn1−xO (x = 0.16) showed good macroscopic crystal quality but revealed some clustering of local defects around the probe Cd atoms, which could not be annealed. In the Ga2O3 samples, the substitution of the Cd probes in the octahedral Ga‐site was observed, demonstrating the potential of ion‐implantation for the doping of nanowires.