Uniaxial stress study of the Cu–H complex in ZnO

The cover picture of the current issue refers to the article by Lavrov and Weber which was selected as Editor's Choice [1]. The picture shows a microscopic model of the Cu–H complex investigated in the paper. The complex consists of a substitutional Cu atom at the Zn site with an H atom located between nearby O and Cu in the basal plane of the ZnO lattice. The atoms are shown in different colors: yellow for copper, red for hydrogen, cyan for oxygen, and grey for zinc. Hydrogen forms a strong bond with the O atom which gives rise to a local vibrational mode at 3192 cm^–1 investigated in the paper under uniaxial stress. The c-axis is parallel to the Cu–O bond pointing to the top of the figure.

The authors work at the Institute of Applied Physics/Semiconductor Physics, TU Dresden, Germany.