Electrical properties of ScN thin films controlled by defect engineering using oxygen ion implantation

Defects tend to modify significantly the properties of semiconductors, such as transport properties, by increasing the scattering of electrons and phonons, or optical properties, by modifying the band structure and the Fermi level. The high interest of ScN thin films for thermoelectric applications results from the incorporation of oxygen, which is well known to be the source for their degenerate n-type state and their significant power factor. Indeed, oxygen acts as a donor defect when substituted to nitrogen. In this study, oxygen ion implantation was performed at a high damage level as a way to modify electrical properties through defect engineering. Hence, we measured the changes in electrical properties induced by oxygen implantation at room temperature. Two types of defects have been identified as being responsible for the change in resistivity, carrier concentration, mobility, and Seebeck coefficient. At first, the point-like defects, recombining from 440 K and onward, introduce localized states near the Fermi level, inducing a change in the conduction mode from a metallic-like to a hopping mechanism. The relationship between Mott's temperature and defect concentration has been clearly demonstrated through in situ resistivity measurements in the 80–750 K temperature range. Furthermore, these measurements highlight that oxygen induced defects result not only from ballistic effects, but also from chemical effects that are involved. Second, the complex-like defects introduce deep acceptor levels into the bandgap and act as scattering centers that modify the Debye temperature as well as the electron–phonon interactions. These complexes, likely between scandium vacancies and oxygen atoms (VSc-yO, y ≤ 4), are primarily responsible for the increase of the Seebeck coefficient and the reduced mobility. The concentration of such defects can qualitatively be assessed as their formation introduces an additional term, independent of temperature, in the variation of resistivity, mobility, and also the Seebeck coefficient. The recovery of the complex-like defects takes place at a minimum temperature of 750 K. Results show that the effectiveness of oxygen in creating defects exceeds that of noble gases in terms of concentration, demonstrating the promise of this approach to control the electrical properties of ScN.