Oxygen mediated optical and electrical property modification of RF sputtered Ga2O3 thin films for photodetector application

The deep UV photodetectors (DUV-PDs) are technologically important for diverse applications, ranging from environmental monitoring, space communication etc. Among all solar blind materials Ga2O3 thin film shows it strong contention owing to its intrinsic solar-blind nature. However, the PD's efficiency can be significantly affected by the defects such as oxygen vacancies (V-circle). Both the deficiency and surplus of oxygen during Ga2O3 thin film deposition can result in the formation of carrier scattering centers, sub-bandgap absorption, and leakage channels. In this work, we have studied the impact of oxygen flow rate (OFR) on the optical and electrical properties of RF sputtered Ga2O3 thin film. The Ga2O3 thin films were deposited on p-Si at room temperature, where the Ar to O-2 ratio has been varied from 1:0, 1:1, to 1:2 to maintain the O-2 poor and O-2 rich condition. The XRD spectrum shows the presence of two peaks positioned at similar to 33.0 degrees, and similar to 64.5 degrees, which are further identified as beta(-202), and beta(-313), respectively for samples grown without oxygen. The top view FESEM images confirm the uniform film growth for both O-2 rich conditions while some isolated bubble-like and grain-like structures are witnessed in ratios 1:0, and 1:1, respectively. The change in optical band gap for all the samples is determined using diffuse reflectance spectra which show the bandgap values lie in the range of 4.1 eV-4.2 eV. Furthermore, the deconvoluted photoluminescence spectra (in the range of lambda=300-500 nm) show the change in different types of Vo defects originating due to OFR induced structural asymmetry in the Ga2O3 thin film. Finally, the change in dark current in Ga2O3/p-Si heterojunctions is estimated from current-voltage (I-V) characteristics to understand the effect of OFR on its electrical properties for future DUV detectors.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of oxygen flow rate on the optical and electrical properties of RF sputtered Ga2O3 thin film. The results show that the morphology and optical properties of Ga2O3 thin film change under different oxygen flow rate conditions. Additionally, the oxygen flow rate is found to affect the dark current of Ga2O3/p-Si heterojunctions.