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remarkable zinc oxide (zno)

the enormous potential for use of zno in optoelectronic applications

can be explained with reference to the table below which compares
key properties of zno with those of competing compound semiconductor
materials currently in use.
indeed zno has a unique combination of high values for energies of
band gap energy, cohesion and exciton stability. the very high
exciton binding energy (60mev) gives it a very high potential for
room temperature light emission. this also gives zno strong
resistance to high temperature electronic degradation during
operation (e.g. laser diodes). finally, zno is the hardest of the
ii-vi family of semiconductors. this means that it�s performance
will not be degraded as easily as the other compounds through the
appearance of defects.

selected zno properties

- molecular mass 81.389

- specific gravity at room temp. 5.642 g/cm3
- point group 6mm
(wurtzite)
- lattice constants at room temp. a=3.250, c=5.205
- mohs hardness 4
- melting point 2250 k
- rt linear thermal expansion coefficient
- a-axis direction 4.75
- c-axis direction 2.92
- electron mass 0.28
- hole mass 1.8
- bandgap energy at room temp. 3.37 ev
- exciton binding energy 60 mev
- specific heat 0.125
cal/gm
- thermal conductivity 0.006 cal/cm/k
- thermoelectric constant at 573 k 1200 mv/k

key advantages of zno

- high piezoelectric effect (e33 = 1.2 c/m2, among highest of all

semiconductors)
- high thermal conductivity of 0.54 wcm-1k-1 (compared with 0.5 for
gaas)
- largest exciton binding energy of ii-vi & iii-v semiconductors, 60
mev
= excitonic stimulated light emission up to 550 k
- even more radiation resistant than gan (up to 2 mev, 1.2 x 1017
electrons/cm-2)
- drift mobility saturates at higher fields & higher values than gan
= attractive for high frequency devices
- very low dark current uv detectors with maximum spectral response
at 350nm
- strong two-photon absorption with high damage thresholds,
= attractive for optical power limiting devices
- very large shear modulus ~45.5 gpa (indicates stability of the
crystal)
= compared with 18.35 for znse, 32.60 for gaas, 51.37 for si.

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