By alloying MgO with ZnO

ZnMgO exhibits a wider bandgap than pure ZnO and has a similar lattice constant to that of ZnO. Therefore ZnMgO can be used as a potential barrier to enhance the quantum efficiency for ZnO/ZnMgO heterostructures

such as quantum wells

superlattices

laser diodes and so on. However

one major challenge is to achieve high quality and stable p-type ZnMgO. Recently

p-type ZnMgO have been investigated by doping with P

Sb

Li

and codoping of Al and N by pulse laser deposition

rf magnetron sputtering

ultrasonic spray pyrolysis or dc magnetron sputtering.In this letter

p-type ZnMgO thin films were realized by Ga-N codoping method via dc reactive magnetron sputtering. ZnMgO thin films were deposited on glass

n-Si wafer

wet oxidated n-Si substrate (SiO

2

/n-Si) and quartz respectively. N

2

O was used as the source of N and O. Hall-effect measurements reveal that the optimal reliable p-type conduction is achieved on the wet oxidated n-Si substrate with a hole concentration of 2.28×10

17

cm

-3

and a resistivity of 27.7 Ω·cm. XPS results suggest the presence of Ga-N bonds and thus validate the codoping method. According to the XRD patterns

p-type ZnMgO thin films exhibit good crystallinity with (002) orientation. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of (002) diffraction peak are 0.61°

0.392° to 0.314°

respectively

for the films deposited on glass

n-Si wafer

wet oxidated n-Si substrates. It is reasonable to consider that the crystallinity is improved evidently when the films deposited on SiO

2

/n-Si substrate. The FE-SEM image of the film deposited on SiO

2

/n-Si substrate is obviously different from that on the other substrates.