skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.


Search for: All records

Award ID contains: 2019749

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. 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. 
    more » « less
  2. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the dominant deep acceptor level in nitrogen-doped beta-phase gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3), elucidating and reconciling the hole emission features observed in deep-level optical spectroscopy (DLOS). The unique behavior of this defect, coupled with its small optical cross section, complicates trap concentration analysis using DLOS, which is essential for defect characterization in β-Ga2O3. A complex feature arises in DLOS results due to simultaneous electron emission to the conduction band and hole emission to the valence band from the same defect state, indicating the formation of two distinct atomic configurations and suggesting metastable defect characteristics. This study discusses the implications of this behavior on DLOS analysis and employs advanced spectroscopy techniques such as double-beam DLOS and optical isothermal measurements to address these complications. The double-beam DLOS method reveals a distinct hole emission process at EV+1.3 eV previously obscured in conventional DLOS. Optical isothermal measurements further characterize this energy level, appearing only in N-doped β-Ga2O3. This enables an estimate of the β-Ga2O3 hole effective mass by analyzing temperature-dependent carrier emission rates. This work highlights the impact of partial trap-filling behavior on DLOS analysis and identifies the presence of hole trapping and emission in β-Ga2O3. Although N-doping is ideal for creating semi-insulating material through the efficient compensation of free electrons, this study also reveals a significant hole emission and migration process within the weak electric fields of the Schottky diode depletion region. 
    more » « less
  3. This Letter reports a highly scaled 90 nm gate length β-Ga2O3 (Ga2O3) T-gate MOSFET with a power gain cutoff frequency (fMAX) of 55 GHz. The 60 nm thin epitaxial Ga2O3 channel layer was grown by molecular beam epitaxy, while the highly doped (n++) source/drain regions were regrown using metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Maximum on current (IDS,MAX) of 160 mA/mm and trans-conductance (gm) around 36 mS/mm were measured at VDS = 10 V for LSD = 1.5 μm device. Transconductance and on current are limited by high channel sheet resistance (Rsheet). Gate/drain breakdown voltage of 125 V was measured for LGD = 1.2 μm. We extracted 27 GHz current gain cutoff frequency (fT) and 55 GHz fMAX for 20 V drain bias for unpassivated devices. While no current collapse was seen initially for both drain and gate lag measurements for 500 ns pulse, moderate current collapse was observed after DC, RF measurements caused by electrical stressing. We calculated a high fT. VBR product of 3.375 THz V, which is comparable to the state-of-the-art GaN HEMTs. This figure of merit suggests that Ga2O3 could be a potential candidate for X-band application. 
    more » « less
  4. We report on the growth of Si-doped homoepitaxial β-Ga2O3 thin films on (010) Ga2O3 substrates via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) utilizing triethylgallium (TEGa) and trimethylgallium (TMGa) precursors. The epitaxial growth achieved an impressive 9.5 μm thickness at 3 μm/h using TMGa, a significant advance in material growth for electronic device fabrication. This paper systematically studies the Schottky barrier diodes fabricated on the three MOCVD-grown films, each exhibiting variations in the epilayer thickness, doping levels, and growth rates. The diode from the 2 μm thick Ga2O3 epilayer with TEGa precursor demonstrates promising forward current densities, the lowest specific on-resistance, and the lowest ideality factor, endorsing TEGa’s potential for MOCVD growth. Conversely, the diode from the 9.5 μm thick Ga2O3 layer with TMGa precursor exhibits excellent characteristics in terms of lowest leakage current, highest on-off ratio, and highest reverse breakdown voltage of −510 V without any electric field management, emphasizing TMGa’s suitability for achieving high growth rates in Ga2O3 epilayers for vertical power electronic devices. 
    more » « less
  5. In this article, the electronic band structure of a β−(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloy system is calculated, with β−Ga2O3 as the bulk crystal. The technique of band unfolding is implemented to obtain an effective band structure for aluminum fractions varying between 12.5% and 62.5% with respect to gallium atoms. A 160-atom supercell is used to model the disordered system that is generated using the technique of special quasi-random structures, which mimics the site correlation of a truly random alloy by reducing the number of candidate structures that arise due to the large number of permutations possible for alloy occupation sites. The impact of the disorder is then evaluated on the electron effective mass and bandgap, which is calculated under the generalized gradient approximation. 
    more » « less
  6. β -Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is an extensively investigated ultrawide-bandgap semiconductor for potential applications in power electronics and radio frequency switching. The room temperature bulk electron mobility (∼200cm2V−1s−1) is comparatively low and is limited by the 30 phonon modes originating from its 10-atom primitive cell. The theoretically calculated saturation velocity in bulk is 1–2×107cms−1 (comparable to GaN) and is limited by the low field mobility. This work explores the high field electron transport (and hence the velocity saturation) in the 2DEG based on the first principles calculated parameters. A self-consistent calculation on a given heterostructure design gives the confined eigenfunctions and eigenenergies. The intrasubband and the intersubband scattering rates are calculated based on the Fermi’s golden rule considering longitudinal optical (LO) phonon–plasmon screening. The high field characteristics are extracted from the full-band Monte Carlo simulation of heterostructures at 300 K. The overall system is divided into a 2D and a 3D region mimicking the electrons in the 2DEG and the bulk, respectively. The electron transport is treated through an integrated Monte Carlo program which outputs the steady state zone population, transient dynamics, and the velocity–field curves for a few heterostructure designs. The critical field for saturation does not change significantly from bulk values, however, an improved peak velocity is calculated at a higher 2DEG density. The velocity at low 2DEG densities is impacted by the antiscreening of LO phonons which plays an important role in shaping the zone population. A comparison with the experimental measurements is also carried out and possible origins of the discrepancies with experiments is discussed. 
    more » « less
  7. This work reports the quantification of rise in channel temperature due to self-heating in two-terminal SrSnO3 thin film devices under electrical bias. Using pulsed current–voltage (I–V) measurements, thermal resistances of the thin films were determined by extracting the relationship between the channel temperature and the dissipated power. For a 26-nm-thick n-doped SrSnO3 channel with an area of 200 μm2, a thermal resistance of 260.1 ± 24.5 K mm/W was obtained. For a modest dissipated power of 0.5 W/mm, the channel temperature rose to ∼176 °C, a value which increases further at higher power levels. Electro-thermal simulations were performed which showed close agreement between the simulated and experimental I–V characteristics both in the absence and presence of self-heating. The work presented is critical for the development of perovskite-based high-power electronic devices. 
    more » « less
  8. Abstract β -Ga 2 O 3 metal–semiconductor field-effect transistors are realized with superior reverse breakdown voltages ( V BR ) and ON currents ( I DMAX ). A sandwiched SiN x dielectric field plate design is utilized that prevents etching-related damage in the active region and a deep mesa-etching was used to reduce reverse leakage. The device with L GD = 34.5 μ m exhibits an I DMAX of 56 mA mm −1 , a high I ON / I OFF ratio >10 8 and a very low reverse leakage until catastrophic breakdown at ∼4.4 kV. A power figure of merit (PFOM) of 132 MW cm −2 was calculated for a V BR of ∼4.4 kV. The reported results are the first >4 kV class Ga 2 O 3 transistors to surpass the theoretical unipolar FOM of silicon. 
    more » « less
  9. In this work, we report a study of the temperature dependent pulsed current voltage and RF characterization of [Formula: see text]-(Al x Ga 1−x ) 2 O 3 /Ga 2 O 3 hetero-structure FETs (HFETs) before and after silicon nitride (Si 3 N 4 ) passivation. Under sub-microsecond pulsing, a moderate DC-RF dispersion (current collapse) is observed before passivation in gate lag measurements, while no current collapse is observed in the drain lag measurements. The dispersion in the gate lag is possibly attributed to interface traps in the gate–drain access region. DC-RF dispersion did not show any strong dependence on the pulse widths. Temperature dependent RF measurements up to 250 °C do not show degradation in the cutoff frequencies. After Si 3 N 4 deposition at 350 °C, a shift of the threshold voltage is observed which changed the DC characteristics. However, the current collapse is eliminated; at 200 ns pulse widths, a 50% higher current is observed compared to the DC at high drain voltages. No current collapse is observed even at higher temperatures. RF performance of the passivated devices does not show degradation. These results show that ex situ deposited Si 3 N 4 is a potential candidate for passivation of [Formula: see text]-(Al x Ga 1−x ) 2 O 3 /Ga 2 O 3 HFETs. 
    more » « less