Deep-Ultraviolet Photodetectors Based on Epitaxial ZnGa2O4 Thin Films

A single-crystalline( )ZnGn(2)O(4) ( )epilayer was successfully grown on c-plane (0001) sapphire substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. This epilayer was used as a ternary oxide semiconductor for application in high-performance metal-semiconductor-metal photoconductive deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photodetectors (PDs). At a bias of 5V, the annealed ZnGn(2)O(4) PDs showed better performance with a considerably low dark current of 1 pA, a responsivity of 86.3 A/W, cut-off wavelength of 280 nm, and a high DUV-to-visible discrimination ratio of approximately 10(7) upon exposure to 230 nm DUV illumination than that of as-grown ZnGn(2)O(4 )PDs. The as-grown PDs presented a dark current of 0.5 mA, a responsivity of 2782 A/W at 230 nm, and a photo-to-dark current contrast ratio of approximately one order. The rise time of annealed PDs was 0.5 s, and the relatively quick decay time was 0.7 s. The present results demonstrate that annealing process can reduce the oxygen vacancy defects and be potentially applied in ZnGn(2)O(4) film-based DUV PD devices, which have been rarely reported in previous studies.