Evidence for Native-Defect Donors inn-Type ZnO

Recent theory has found that native defects such as the O vacancy $V_{\mathrm{O}}$ and Zn interstitial ${\mathrm{Zn}}_I$ have high formation energies in $n$-type ZnO and, thus, are not important donors, especially in comparison to impurities such as H. In contrast, we use both theory and experiment to show that, under N ambient, the complex ${\mathrm{Zn}}_I\mathrm{\text{−}}{\mathrm{N}}_{\mathrm{O}}$ is a stronger candidate than H or any other known impurity for a 30 meV donor commonly found in bulk ZnO grown from the vapor phase. Since the Zn vacancy is also the dominant acceptor in such material, we must conclude that native defects are important donors and acceptors in ZnO.