Temperature dependent hopping conduction in lithium-doped zinc oxide in the range 10–300 K

A temperature-dependent hopping conduction was studied in lithium (Li)-doped zinc oxide (ZnO) in the temperature range 10–300 K. Monodoping of Li in ZnO was made as suggested by the theory based on the first principle calculations. Li-doped ZnO films were deposited both on glass and quartz substrates by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in presence and absence of oxygen ambience. The films were found to be p-type. It was found that whereas in the temperature range 10–40 K, variable range hopping resulted in Mott’s conductivity, above 40 K, the conductivity was governed by the thermal assisted hopping.