ZnO:N and ZnO:Sb layers were obtained by thermal oxidation of Zn compounds with group-V elements. The films are polycrystalline, with the acceptor concentration in the range 1020 cm-3, and the background concentration of H of 5×1019 cm-3. Transport measurements reveal the p-type conductivity with the hole concentrations exceeding 1017 cm-3. Rich photoluminescence spectra involve excitons bound to neutral acceptors and donor-to-acceptor transitions. p-ZnO:N and p-ZnO:Sb films show transparency of about 85 % in the visible wavelength range, making these materials very promising for transparent electronics.

Ga-doped Mg0.15Zn0.85O thin films have been grown on fused silica substrates at 350°C with four different gallium concentration values using pulsed laser deposition. X-ray diffraction results indicate that these films were textured with c-plane parallel to the substrate surface. The bandgap of the films were determined based on the absorption measurements. The bandgaps of the Ga-doped thin films shifted to higher energy with respect to that of the unalloyed Mg0.15Zn0.85O thin film due to the band filling effect of electron distribution in the conduction band. Resistivity of the films was measured with four-point probe at temperatures from 295 K to 15 K. The activation energy of the gallium dopants was extracted by fitting the temperature dependent curve of resistivity.

ZnO nanofibers doped with Ga, In and Er metals have been fabricated by electrospinning technique. The diameter of the fibers was in the range of 0.5-2 μm and the length can be up to several feet. After spinning fabrication step the samples were dried out and annealed at 900 °C in air. Room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra measured for undoped and In- and Ga-doped ZnO fiber samples exhibit only a strong near band edge (NBE) emission at ∼380 nm with very weak green band at 525 nm. In contrary, the PL spectrum of Er-doped ZnO fibers shows a very weak NBE and strong green emission band at ∼550 nm at 300 K. The electrospinning mechanism used for the fabrication of nanofibers was found to be productive, simple and easy to implement disregarding of the doping type and concentration.

Hall effect, photoluminescence (PL) and Schottky diode measurements were made on the Zn-polar , O-polar and m-plane faces of hydrothermally grown, bulk ZnO. Several polarity related differences were observed in the PL spectra. The most noticeable was increased emission from free excitons and from a triplet of emissions at 3.3725 - 3.3750 eV on the Zn-polar face. Polarity effects were also observed in the properties of highly rectifying, planar, silver oxide diodes fabricated by RF sputtering using an Ag target and an Ar/O2 plasma. The most significant of these was a consistent 130 meV larger barrier height for silver oxide diodes on the Zn-polar face compared to the O-polar face. These polarity effects are thought to result from the internal compensation of bound spontaneous polarization charges at the Zn-polar and O-polar faces. In addition, Au and Ag Schottky diodes with image-force-controlled ideality factors were achieved on the Zn-polar face of bulk ZnO without any special surface treatments.

Erbium doped ZnO (ZnO:Er) is considered to be a suitable candidate for fabrication of the current injection optical devices. Although ZnO: Er thin films have been synthesized previously by pulsed laser deposition, we present low – temperature processed ZnO:Er thin films from polymeric precursors. In this work, we study the effect of variation of Er doping concentration on the structural and electrical properties of the synthesized films. ZnO nanoparticles of varied Er doping concentration, derived from the prepared polymeric solution, has been spin – coated onto surface modified substrates, and annealed at different temperatures. The effect of Er doping concentration on film grain size and strain was analyzed using X-ray diffraction. XRD data reveals that doping of Er ions reduces compressive strain considerably in the films. It is speculated that the presence of larger Er cations in ZnO cause tensile stress, which neutralizes the inherent compressive stress, observed in undoped ZnO, significantly decreasing and hence, making the films stress free. Crystallite size of ZnO:Er thin films, annealed at 600°C, was calculated to be approximately 12 nm using Scherrer's equation. The surface morphology of the thin films was characterized by both SEM and AFM. Electrical resistivity of the films, annealed at 450oC, was calculated to be 290 Ω-m for 5 at wt% and 125 Ω-m for 10 at wt% ZnO:Er films.

ZnO nanorods are grown by hydrothermal synthesis on a GaN substrate. The nanorods are charcterised by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and electron diffraction. A phenomenological model is proposed to predict the areal density and rod length.

The influence of the integration of ultra-thin layer of different metals (Al, Cu, Sn, Te, Pb and Au) with the c-axis oriented ZnO thin film on the ultraviolet (UV) photoresponse is investigated. The transfer of electrons from the metal layer to the semiconductor at the interface compensate the surface states which otherwise takes electrons from the interior of ZnO layer and thereby increases the conductivity under UV illumination. The Sn/ZnO sample exhibits a responsivity of the order of 8.5 KV/W at a low UV intensity of 140 μW/cm2 (⎻ = 365 nm) with a fast rise and fall time of 105 and 400 ms respectively.