Stable p‐type conductivity in B and N co‐doped ZnO epitaxial thin film

We report on the observation of stable p‐type conductivity in B and N co‐doped epitaxial ZnO thin films grown by pulsed laser deposition. Films grown at higher oxygen partial pressure (∼10 −1  Torr) shows p‐type conductivity with a carrier concentration of ∼3 × 10 16  cm −3 . This p‐type conductivity is associated with the significant decrease in defect emission peaks due to the vacancy oxygen (V O ) and Schottky type‐I native defects compared to films grown at low oxygen partial pressure (∼10 −5  Torr). The p‐type conductivity is explained with the help of density functional theory (DFT) calculation considering off‐stoichiometric BN 1 +  x in the ZnO lattice.