Effects of Neutron Irradiation on Electrical Performance of β-Ga2O3 Schottky Barrier Diodes

The effect of neutron irradiation on the electrical performance of the beta-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode (SBD) device has been studied in this work. After equivalent 1 MeV neutron irradiation with a fluence of 1 x 10(14) n/cm(2), a 20% decrease in the forward current density (J(F)), a 75% reduction in the reverse current density (J(R)), and a 300 V increase in the breakdown voltage (V-br) have been observed according to current-voltage (I-V) measurements. Utilizing the frequency-dependent conductance technique, it is found that the density of interface states located at Pt/Ga2O3 increases slightly from 2.6 x 10(12)-6.4 x 10(12) to 2.9 x 10(12)-7.0 x 10(12) cm(-2)eV(-1) with an increase in trap activation energy from 0.09-0.122 to 0.096-0.134 eV after neutron irradiation. Furthermore, based on the capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement, it is observed that the carrier concentration across the Ga2O3 drift layer was decreased from 1.80 x 10(16) to 1.35 x 10(16) cm(-3) after neutron irradiation. Considering the device performance change, it indicates that the bulk traps within the Ga2O3 drift layer instead of interface states dominate the device degradation.

Automated summary

This study investigates the effect of neutron irradiation on the electrical performance of the beta-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diode (SBD) device. The results show that after neutron irradiation, there is a decrease in forward current density (J(F)), reduction in reverse current density (J(R)), and increase in breakdown voltage (V-br) based on current-voltage (I-V) measurements. The density of interface states slightly increases, and there is an increase in trap activation energy after neutron irradiation according to frequency-dependent conductance technique. The carrier concentration across the Ga2O3 drift layer decreases after neutron irradiation based on capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurements.