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A systematic investigation of the electrical characteristics of β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) has been conducted under high-dose 60Co gamma radiation, with total cumulative doses reaching up to 5 Mrad (Si). Initial exposure of the diodes to 1 Mrad resulted in a significant decrease in on-current and an increase in on-resistance compared to the pre-radiation condition, likely due to the generation of radiation-induced deep-level acceptor traps. However, upon exposure to higher gamma radiation doses of 3 and 5 Mrad, a partial recovery of the device performance occurred, attributed to a radiation annealing effect. Capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements showed a decrease in net carrier concentration in the β-Ga2O3 drift layer, from ∼3.20 × 1016 to ∼3.05 × 1016 cm−3, after 5 Mrad irradiation. Temperature-dependent I–V characteristics showed that 5 Mrad irradiation leads to a reduction in both forward and reverse currents across all investigated temperatures ranging from 25 to 250 °C, accompanied by slight increases in on-resistance, ideality factors, and Schottky barrier heights. Additionally, a slight increase in reverse breakdown voltage was observed post-radiation. Overall, β-Ga2O3 SBDs exhibit high resilience to gamma irradiation, with performance degradation mitigated by radiation-induced self-recovery, highlighting its potential for radiation-hardened electronic applications in extreme environment.
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Photosensitivity of Ga2O3 Schottky diodes: Effects of deep acceptor traps present before and after neutron irradiation
The photocurrent produced by 259 nm wavelength excitation was measured in β-Ga2O3 Schottky diodes before and after neutron irradiation. These samples differed by the density of deep acceptors in the lower half of the bandgap as detected by capacitance–voltage profiling under monochromatic illumination. Irradiation led to a very strong increase in photocurrent, which closely correlated with the increase in deep trap density and the decrease after illumination of the effective Schottky barrier height due to hole capture by acceptors. A similar effect was observed on an as-grown βs-Ga2O3 film with a high density of deep acceptors. Electron beam induced current measurements indicated a strong amplification of photocurrent, which is attributed to the Schottky barrier lowering by holes trapped on acceptors near the surface. Photocurrent build-up and decay curves show several time constants ranging from several milliseconds to many seconds. These characteristic times are attributed to tunneling of electrons into the hole-filled acceptors near the surface and to thermal emission of holes from deep acceptors.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1856662
- PAR ID:
- 10594678
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Institute of Physics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- APL Materials
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 11
- ISSN:
- 2166-532X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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