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NiO/β-(Al x Ga 1− x ) 2 O 3 /Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction lateral geometry rectifiers with diameter 50–100  μm exhibited maximum reverse breakdown voltages >7 kV, showing the advantage of increasing the bandgap using the β-(Al x Ga 1− x ) 2 O 3 alloy. This Si-doped alloy layer was grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition with an Al composition of ∼21%. On-state resistances were in the range of 50–2180 Ω cm 2 , leading to power figures-of-merit up to 0.72 MW cm −2 . The forward turn-on voltage was in the range of 2.3–2.5 V, with maximum on/off ratios >700 when switching from 5 V forward to reverse biases up to −100 V. Transmission line measurements showed the specific contact resistance was 0.12 Ω cm 2 . The breakdown voltage is among the highest reported for any lateral geometry Ga 2 O 3 -based rectifier.

Ion beam fabrication of metastable polymorphs of Ga₂O₃, assisted by the controllable accumulation of the disorder in the lattice, is an interesting alternative to conventional deposition techniques. However, the adjustability of the electrical properties in such films is unexplored. In this work, we investigated two strategies for tuning the electron concentration in the ion beam created metastable κ-polymorph: adding silicon donors by ion implantation and adding hydrogen via plasma treatments. Importantly, all heat treatments were limited to ≤600 °C, set by the thermal stability of the ion beam fabricated polymorph. Under these conditions, silicon doping did not change the high resistive state caused by the iron acceptors in the initial wafer and residual defects accumulated upon the implants. Conversely, treating samples in a hydrogen plasma converted the ion beam fabricated κ-polymorph to n-type, with a net donor density in the low 10¹² cm⁻³range and dominating deep traps near 0.6 eV below the conduction band. The mechanism explaining this n-type conductivity change may be due to hydrogen forming shallow donor complexes with gallium vacancies and/or possibly passivating a fraction of the iron acceptors responsible for the high resistivity in the initial wafers.

In this study, the response to a heavy-ion strike and the resulting single effect burnout on beta-Ga 2 O 3 Schottky diodes with biased field rings is investigated via TCAD. The model used to simulate the device under high-reverse bias is validated using experimental current-voltage (I-V) curves. A field ring configuration for the device demonstrates an improved charge removal after simulated heavy-ion strikes. If the time scale for charge removal is faster than single event burnout, this can be an effective mechanism for reducing the effect of single ion strikes. This study explores various configurations of the termination structure and shows the impact of different design parameters in terms of a transient response after the ion strike.

The electric field dependence of emission rate of the deep traps with level near E_c−0.6 eV, so-called E1 traps, was studied by means of deep level transient spectroscopy measurements over a wide range of applied voltages. The traps were initially introduced by 900 °C ampoule annealing in molecular hydrogen. The results indicate the activation energy of the centers and the ratio of high-field to low-field electron emission rates at a fixed temperature scale as the square root of electric field, suggesting that the centers behave as deep donors. The possible microscopic nature of the centers in view of recent theoretical calculations is discussed. The most likely candidates for the E1 centers are Si_Ga1–H or Sn_Ga2–H complexes.

There is increasing interest in α-polytype Ga 2 O 3 for power device applications, but there are few published reports on dielectrics for this material. Finding a dielectric with large band offsets for both valence and conduction bands is especially challenging given its large bandgap of 5.1 eV. One option is HfSiO 4 deposited by atomic layer deposition (ALD), which provides conformal, low damage deposition and has a bandgap of 7 eV. The valence band offset of the HfSiO 4 /Ga 2 O 3 heterointerface was measured using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The single-crystal α-Ga 2 O 3 was grown by halide vapor phase epitaxy on sapphire substrates. The valence band offset was 0.82 ± 0.20 eV (staggered gap, type-II alignment) for ALD HfSiO 4 on α-Ga 0.2 O 3 . The corresponding conduction band offset was −2.72 ± 0.45 eV, providing no barrier to electrons moving into Ga 2 O 3 .

While a number of O-H and O-D vibrational lines have been observed for hydrogen and deuterium in β-Ga 2 O 3 , it has been commonly reported that there is no absorption with a component of the polarization E parallel to the [010], or b, axis. This experimental result has led to O-H defect structures that involve shifted configurations of a vacancy at the tetrahedrally coordinated Ga(1) site [V Ga(1) ] and have ruled out structures that involve a vacancy at the octahedrally coordinated Ga(2) site [V Ga(2) ], because these structures are predicted to show absorption for E//[010]. In this Letter, weak O-D lines at 2475 and 2493 cm −1 with a component of their polarization with E//[010] are reported for β-Ga 2 O 3 that had been annealed in a D 2 ambient. O-D defect structures involving an unshifted V Ga(2) are proposed for these centers. An estimate is made that the concentration of V Ga(2) in a Czochralski-grown sample is 2–3 orders of magnitude lower than that of V Ga(1) from the intensities of the IR absorption lines.

NiO/Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction rectifiers were exposed to 1 Mrad fluences of Co-60 γ-rays either with or without reverse biases. While there is a small component of Compton electrons (600 keV), generated via the interaction of 1.17 and 1.33 MeV gamma photons with the semiconductor, which in turn can lead to displacement damage, most of the energy is lost to ionization. The effect of the exposure to radiation is a 1000× reduction in forward current and a 100× increase in reverse current in the rectifiers, which is independent of whether the devices were biased during this step. The on–off ratio is also reduced by almost five orders of magnitude. There is a slight reduction in carrier concentration in the Ga 2 O 3 drift region, with an effective carrier removal rate of <4 cm −1 . The changes in electrical characteristics are reversible by application of short forward current pulses during repeated measurement of the current–voltage characteristics at room temperature. There are no permanent total ionizing dose effects present in the rectifiers to 1 Mad fluences, which along with their resistance to displacement damage effects indicate that these devices may be well-suited to harsh terrestrial and space radiation applications if appropriate bias sequencesmore »are implemented to reverse the radiation-induced changes.« less

The characteristics of sputtered NiO for use in pn heterojunctions with Ga 2 O 3 were investigated as a function of sputtering parameters and postdeposition annealing temperature. The oxygen/ nickel and Ni 2 O 3 /NiO ratios, as well as the bandgap and resistivity, increased as a function of O 2 /Ar gas flow ratio. For example, the bandgap increased from 3.7 to 3.9 eV and the resistivity increased from 0.1 to 2.9 Ω cm for the O 2 /Ar ratio increasing from 1/30 to 1/3. By sharp contrast, the bandgap and Ni 2 O 3 /NiO ratio decreased monotonically with postdeposition annealing temperatures up to 600 °C, but the density of films increased due to a higher fraction of NiO being present. Hydrogen is readily incorporated into NiO during exposure to plasmas, as delineated by secondary ion mass spectrometry measurements on deuterated films. The band alignments of NiO films were type II-staggered gaps with both α- and β-Ga 2 O 3 . The breakdown voltage of NiO/β-Ga 2 O 3 heterojunction rectifiers was also a strong function of the O 2 /Ar flow ratio during deposition, with values of 1350 V for 1/3 and 830 V for 1/30.

The band alignments of two candidate dielectrics for ScAlN, namely, SiO 2 and Al 2 O 2 , were obtained by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We compared the effect of deposition method on the valence band offsets of both sputtered and atomic layer deposition films of SiO 2 and Al 2 O 3 on Sc 0.27 Al 0.73 N (bandgap 5.1 eV) films. The band alignments are type I (straddled gap) for SiO 2 and type II (staggered gap) for Al 2 O 3 . The deposition methods make a large difference in relative valence band offsets, in the range 0.4–0.5 eV for both SiO 2 and Al 2 O 3 . The absolute valence band offsets were 2.1 or 2.6 eV for SiO 2 and 1.5 or 1.9 eV for Al 2 O 3 on ScAlN. Conduction band offsets derived from these valence band offsets, and the measured bandgaps were then in the range 1.0–1.1 eV for SiO 2 and 0.30–0.70 eV for Al 2 O 3 . These latter differences can be partially ascribed to changes in bandgap for the case of SiO 2 deposited by the two different methods, but not for Al 2 O 3 , where the bandgap as independent of depositionmore »method. Since both dielectrics can be selectively removed from ScAlN, they are promising as gate dielectrics for transistor structures.« less