The effect of annealing treatment on the electrical properties of Li-Ga co-doped ZnO

In this work, Ga³⁺ and Li⁺ were co-doped in ZnO, and the sintered samples of Zn_1-x Li_x/2Ga_x/2O, in which x was varied from 0 to 0.5, were prepared. The sintered samples were heat treated at various temperatures and the effect on the electrical properties of ZnO was examined. The Hall-effect measurements of the samples showed an n-type semiconducting behavior as well as a decrease in the electrical conductivity as the doping content was increased while heat treatment lead to higher electrical conductivity of the samples. Based on the electrical conductivity measured and the defect models, a defect association model between Ga Zn and Li Zn was proposed. In addition, the activation energy of 1.482 eV for electrical conduction was in good agreement with the calculated defect association energy of 1.473 eV.