Bound exciton and donor–acceptor pair recombinations in ZnO

Abstract The optical properties of excitonic recombinations in bulk, n‐type ZnO are investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and spatially resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements. At liquid helium temperature in undoped crystals the neutral donor bound excitons dominate in the PL spectrum. Two electron satellite transitions (TES) of the donor bound excitons allow to determine the donor binding energies ranging from 46 to 73 meV. These results are in line with the temperature dependent Hall effect measurements. In the as‐grown crystals a shallow donor with an activation energy of 30 meV controls the conductivity. Annealing annihilates this shallow donor which has a bound exciton recombination at 3.3628 eV.…