Lattice location of implanted As in ZnO

Radioactive 73As ions were implanted into a ZnO single crystal at room temperature with 60 keV up to a fluence of 2×1013 cm−2. Subsequently, the angular emission channeling patterns of emitted conversion electrons were recorded by means of a position-sensitive detector in the as-implanted state and following annealing up to 900 C, and were compared to simulated emission yields for a variety of different lattice sites. We find that As does not occupy substitutional O sites, but mainly occupies the substitutional Zn sites. The fraction of As on O sites was at most a few per cent. Arsenic in ZnO is thus an interesting example of an impurity in a semiconductor where the major impurity lattice site is determined by atomic size and electronegativity rather than its position in the periodic system. Possible consequences with respect to the role of arsenic as a p-type dopant in ZnO are being discussed.