Study of a nitrogen-doped ZnO film with synchrotron radiation

X-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy (XANES) and photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) with synchrotron radiation have been applied to investigate the structure and chemical states of nitrogen atoms in ZnO:N films with different annealing temperatures. The high-resolution XANES and PES spectra of N 1s reveal the chemical states of N dopants and give a direct observation of nitrogen location in the ZnO films. The results indicate that only the nitrogen atoms incorporated substitutionally at O sites act as acceptors, and contribute to the p-type characteristic of the ZnO:N film.