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Vertical heterojunction NiO/β n-Ga 2 O/n + Ga 2 O 3 rectifiers employing NiO layer extension beyond the rectifying contact for edge termination exhibit breakdown voltages (V B ) up to 4.7 kV with a power figure-of-merits, V B 2 /R ON of 2 GW·cm −2 , where R ON is the on-state resistance (11.3 mΩ cm 2 ). Conventional rectifiers fabricated on the same wafers without NiO showed V B values of 840 V and a power figure-of-merit of 0.11 GW cm −2 . Optimization of the design of the two-layer NiO doping and thickness and also the extension beyond the rectifying contact by TCAD showed that the peak electric field at the edge of the rectifying contact could be significantly reduced. The leakage current density before breakdown was 144 mA/cm 2 , the forward current density was 0.8 kA/cm 2 at 12 V, and the turn-on voltage was in the range of 2.2–2.4 V compared to 0.8 V without NiO. Transmission electron microscopy showed sharp interfaces between NiO and epitaxial Ga 2 O 3 and a small amount of disorder from the sputtering process. 

Abstract The band alignment of sputtered NiO on β -Ga 2 O 3 was measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy for post-deposition annealing temperatures up to 600 °C. The band alignment is type II, staggered gap in all cases, with the magnitude of the conduction and valence band offsets increasing monotonically with annealing temperature. For the as-deposited heterojunction, Δ E V = −0.9 eV and Δ E C = 0.2 eV, while after 600 °C annealing the corresponding values are Δ E V = −3.0 eV and Δ E C = 2.12 eV. The bandgap of the NiO was reduced from 3.90 eV as-deposited to 3.72 eV after 600 °C annealing, which accounts for most of the absolute change in Δ E V −Δ E C . Differences in thermal budget may be at least partially responsible for the large spread in band offsets reported in the literature for this heterojunction. Other reasons could include interfacial disorder and contamination. Differential charging, which could shift peaks by different amounts and could potentially be a large source of error, was not observed in our samples. 

There is increasing interest in the alpha polytype of Ga2O3 because of its even larger bandgap than the more studied beta polytype, but in common with the latter, there is no viable p-type doping technology. One option is to use p-type oxides to realize heterojunctions and NiO is one of the candidate oxides. The band alignment of sputtered NiO on α-Ga2O3 remains type II, staggered gap for annealing temperatures up to 600 °C, showing that this is a viable approach for hole injection in power electronic devices based on the alpha polytype of Ga2O3. The magnitude of both the conduction and valence band offsets increases with temperature up to 500 °C, but then is stable to 600 °C. For the as-deposited NiO/α-Ga2O3 heterojunction, ΔEV = −2.8 and ΔEC = 1.6 eV, while after 600 °C annealing the corresponding values are ΔEV = −4.4 and ΔEC = 3.02 eV. These values are 1−2 eV larger than for the NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction.

 

NiO is a promising alternative to p-GaN as a hole injection layer for normally-off lateral transistors or low on-resistance vertical heterojunction rectifiers. The valence band offsets of sputtered NiO on c-plane, vertical geometry homoepitaxial GaN structures were measured by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy as a function of annealing temperatures to 600 °C. This allowed determination of the band alignment from the measured bandgap of NiO. This alignment was type II, staggered gap for both as-deposited and annealed samples. For as-deposited heterojunction, ΔE_V = 2.89 eV and ΔE_C = −2.39 eV, while for all the annealed samples, ΔE_Vvalues were in the range of 3.2–3.4 eV and ΔE_Cvalues were in the range of −(2.87–3.05) eV. The bandgap of NiO was reduced from 3.90 eV as-deposited to 3.72 eV after 600 °C annealing, which accounts for much of the absolute change in ΔE_V− ΔE_C. At least some of the spread in reported band offsets for the NiO/GaN system may arise from differences in their thermal history.