The zinc oxide semiconductor can be directed towards p-type or n-type electrical performance depending on the synthesis conditions and fabrication methods, ranging from chemical, sol gel to physical vapor deposition procedures, or the one used in this work: reactive sputtering. Usually this binary oxide, in thin film form, synthesizes into an n-type semiconductor if is fabricated by means of the reactive sputtering method, using an oxygen-poor atmosphere and specific deposition conditions, already established above. However, due to an accident in the synthesis, it was possible to determine the effect that the typical atmosphere at normal atmospheric pressure with 78% nitrogen had on the expected zinc oxide lattice if was abruptly integrated over the scheme. The verification was done using a scratch angle X-ray diffraction characterization, which evidences the incorporation of nitrogen atoms into the zinc oxide crystal by the widening of the lattice parameters. The experimental arrangement analyzed was a bilayer scheme with a first film of n-type zinc oxide and, on this, a second film of the same oxide but p-type. It was possible to conclude that, apart from the desired diode-like behavior of the bilayer, evidenced by the assembly of the half-wave rectifier, there was also evidence of the incorporation of nitrogen in the crystal lattice in the second layer by the notorious shift of the diffraction peak (101).