Acceptor nitrogen and a donor-acceptor combination of hydrogen and nitrogen ions at 23 keV with fluences in the range from 1 x 10(15) to 5 x 10(16) ions cm(-2) have been implanted into ZnO films grown on Si substrate. DYNAMIC-TRIM calculations have been performed to obtain theoretical quantitative implantation profiles for various fluences. Ion beam analysis measurements confirmed the presence of implanted ions and were in agreement with the predicted concentrations. Raman spectroscopy was used to measure the characteristic vibrations of the various implanted ZnO/Si thin films. A correlation was found between the vibrational modes and the ion fluences. Silent B-1 modes are observed due to disorder-activated Raman scattering in the as-grown films, indicating that structural disorder is present. The enhanced features seen in the co-implanted sample indicate that the disordered phase is increased. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.