Optical study of D–D neutron irradiation-induced defects in Co- and Cu-doped ZnO wafers

Room-temperature photoluminescence and optical transmittance spectroscopy of Co-doped (1×10¹⁴,5×10¹⁶, and 1×10¹⁷ cm^-2) and Cu-doped (5×10¹⁶ cm^-2) ZnO wafers irradiated by D–D neutrons (fluence of 2.9×10¹⁰ cm^-2) have been investigated. After irradiation, the Co or Cu metal and oxide clusters in doped ZnO wafers are dissolved, and the würtzite structure of ZnO substrate for each sample remains unchanged and keeps in high c-axis preferential orientation. The degree of irradiation-induced crystal disorder reflected from absorption band tail parameter (E₀) is far greater for doped ZnO than undoped one. Under the same doping concentration, the Cu-doped ZnO wafer has much higher irradiation-induced disorder than the Co-doped one. Photoluminescence measurements indicate that the introduction rate of both zinc vacancy and zinc interstitial is much higher for the doped ZnO wafer with high doping level than the undoped one. In addition, both crystal lattice distortion and defect complexes are suggested to be formed in doped ZnO wafers. Consequently, the Co- or Cu-doped ZnO wafer (especially with high doping level) exhibits very low radiation hardness compared with the undoped one, and the Cu-doped ZnO wafer is much less radiation-hard than the Co-doped one.