title: P-type nitrogen-doped ZnO nanoparticles stable under ambient conditions.
abstract: Zinc oxide is considered as a very promising material for optoelectronics. However, to date, the difficulty in producing stable p-type ZnO is a bottleneck, which hinders the advent of ZnO-based devices. In that context, nitrogen-doped zinc oxide receives much attention. However, numerous reviews report the controversial character of p-type conductivity in N-doped ZnO, and recent theoretical contributions explain that N-doping alone cannot lead to p-typeness in Zn-rich ZnO. We report here that the ammonolysis at low temperature of ZnO(2) yields pure wurtzite-type N-doped ZnO nanoparticles with an extraordinarily large amount of Zn vacancies (up to 20%). Electrochemical and transient spectroscopy studies demonstrate that these Zn-poor nanoparticles exhibit a p-type conductivity that is stable over more than 2 years under ambient conditions.
authors.affiliation: Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel (IMN), Université de Nantes, CNRS, UMR6502, 2 rue de la Houssinière, 44322 Nantes cedex 3, France.
authors.forename: Benoit
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chavillon
authors.forename: Laurent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cario
authors.forename: Adèle
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Renaud
authors.forename: Franck
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tessier
authors.forename: François
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cheviré
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Boujtita
authors.forename: Yann
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Pellegrin
authors.forename: Errol
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Blart
authors.forename: Amanda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smeigh
authors.forename: Leif
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Hammarström
authors.forename: Fabrice
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Odobel
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jobic