Electroconductive properties in doped spinel oxides

Abstract The application of spinel oxides as transparent conducting oxides (TCOs) in optoelectronic devices as a substitute for ZnO is attracting attention in the recent years. Despite attractive photo-luminescence properties of zinc aluminate and zinc gallate, relatively little work has been done to interpret the optical response of spinel oxides on the basis of energy band structures. We present the electronic properties of ZnX2O4 (X = Al, Ga, In) calculated by the full potential linearized augmented plane wave method. Optical properties such as absorption coefficient and reflectivity are calculated and interpreted in terms of energy bands and density of states. Enhancement in optical properties was studied for Li and Mn ions doped in the ZnGa2O4 matrix. The main features in the experimentally observed photoluminescence spectra for doped and undoped ZnGa2O4 have been verified through the optical parameters. The transparence of spinel oxides to UV radiations is also clearly illustrated in the reflectivity vs. energy curves. At very small wavelengths the oxides may be used as reflective coating materials. Transport properties of the zinc spinel oxides have been investigated for the first time, and are found to have high Seebeck coefficients, high electrical conductivity and low thermal conductivity, with high value of figure of merit ZT ∼ 0.8. The study of vibrational and thermodynamic properties by the projector augmented wave method confirms the dynamic stability of the doped and undoped spinel oxides. Zinc spinel oxides are found to be p-type semiconductors with an optimum value of band gap ∼2–3 eV and appear to meet the conditions of low resistivity and high transparency (>80%) for state-of-art TCOs.