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Deuterium Incorporation and Diffusivity in Plasma-Exposed Bulk Ga2O3
Deuterium Incorporation and Diffusivity in Plasma-Exposed Bulk Ga2O3
Deuterium Incorporation and Diffusivity in Plasma-Exposed Bulk Ga2O3
Shihyun Ahn, F. Ren, Erin Patrick, Mark E. Law, S. J. Pearton, and Akito Kuramata
Gallium oxide (Ga2O3) metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors on single-crystal -Ga2O3 (010) substrates
Applied Physics Letters 100, 013504 (2012); 10.1063/1.3674287
Enhancement-mode Ga2O3 wrap-gate fin field-effect transistors on native (100) β-Ga2O3 substrate with high
breakdown voltage
Applied Physics Letters 109, 213501 (2016); 10.1063/1.4967931
There is a significant interest in the use of Ga2O3 In this letter, we report an investigation of the diffusion
for applications in high power electronics1–9 and truly solar- of deuterium in Ga2O3 during exposure to 2H plasmas and its
blind ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors.10–14 Monoclinic thermal stability. The deuterium is found to be incorporated
b-Ga2O3 has a bandgap of 4.9 eV, good chemical and ther- into the Ga2O3 at temperatures as low as 100 C and can be
mal stability, high optical transparency in both UV and visi- evolved from the material by subsequent annealing under O2
ble regions, and good thermal conductivity. The latter will at 500 C.
still be an issue for many power devices operating at high The starting sample was a bulk b-phase Ga2O3 single
current levels, but it might be addressed using advanced crystal with (201) surface orientation (Tamura Corporation,
heatsinks like diamond or microfluidic approaches or transfer Japan) grown by the edge-defined film-fed growth method.
to a metal substrate, all of which are currently being devel- Hall effect measurements showed that the sample was unin-
oped for GaN electronics. Ga2O3 has a very high theoretical tentionally n-type with an electron concentration of 3
breakdown electric field (8 MV/cm),5,6 leading to a Baliga 1017 cm3. The plasma exposed samples were treated for 30
figure-of-merit almost four times higher for Ga2O3 compared min at 100, 200, and 270 C in a 0.5 Torr, 13.56 MHz dis-
to GaN.3–7 Experimental breakdown field values have charge.21 Sections of the 200 C treated sample were then
reached 3.8 MV/cm in Ga2O3, and these are already higher annealed for 5 min at either 500 or 600 C under flowing O2 in
than the bulk critical field strengths of GaN and SiC.6 Ga2O3 a face-to-face configuration to measure the thermal stability
remains transparent well into the ultraviolet (UV) part of the of the deuterium. All of the samples were examined by
spectrum, allowing its use as a transparent conducting oxide Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS). The latter was per-
in this region.10–13 These deep-UV photodetectors need to formed in a magnetic sector Cameca system using a Csþ ion
have a cut-off wavelength of 280 nm for solar blindness. beam with 14.5 keV energy and 24 incident angle.22
Conductivity control is of particular interest in transpar- Figure 1 shows SIMS profiles of 2H in plasma exposed
ent conducting oxides like Ga2O3. Oxygen vacancies and Ga2O3, for different sample temperatures during the plasma
cation interstitials traditionally have been invoked as the treatment, as well as the simulated curves. The experimental
causes of conductivity. In recent studies, hydrogen impurities profiles follow those expected for diffusion from a constant
have been found to be the dominant shallow donors in sev- or semi-infinite source.23 The incorporation depths of 2H are
eral important cases like ZnO and In2O3.15–20 There is evi- fairly similar to those observed for the same type of plasma
dence from theory17 and from experimental measurements of exposure of GaN or GaAs under similar conditions, where
the properties of muonium (a light ion analog of hydrogen depths of 1 lm are observed.24,25 The incorporation depths
that is often used to provide a guide to how hydrogen will are, however, much less than in ZnO, where depths of 25 lm
behave in semiconductors)18 that hydrogen is also a shallow were reported.21 It is likely that the hydrogen isotope must
donor in Ga2O3, but little is known of its properties such as diffuse as an interstitial under these conditions, with little
diffusivity, thermal stability, and migration energies in this trapping by the lattice elements or by defects or impurities.
material. The position of 2H in the lattice after immobilization has not
yet been determined experimentally, but theoretically, the
a)
Electronic mail: spear@mse.ufl.edu lowest energy state for Hþ is forming an O-H bond with
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motion. Most (85%) of the plasma-incorporated deuterium H. Chen, K. Liu, L. Hu, A. A. Al-Ghamdi, and X. Fang, Mater. Today 18,
493 (2015).
is removed from the Ga2O3 by annealing at 500 C. The 11
D. Guo, Z. Wu, P. Li, Y. An, H. Liu, X. Guo, H. Yan, G. Wang, C. Sun, L.
deuterium incorporated by plasma exposure has lower ther- Li, and W. Tang, Opt. Mater. Express 4, 1067 (2014).
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mal stability than when it is introduced by direct ion implan- S. Nakagomi, T. Momo, S. Takahashi, and Y. Kokubun, Appl. Phys. Lett.
tation, due to trapping at residual damage in the latter case. 103(7), 072105 (2013).
13
Z. Ji, J. Du, J. Fan, and W. Wang, Opt. Mater. 28, 415 (2006).
The results clearly show the incorporation of deuterium into 14
S. Oh, Y. Jung, M. A. Mastro, J. K. Hite, C. R. Eddy, Jr., and J. Kim, Opt.
Ga2O3 at moderate temperatures, but with much lower diffu- Express 23, 28300 (2015).
15
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16
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The work at UF was supported by DTRA Contract No. 211903 (2010).
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See http://www.floops.ece.ufl.edu/index.php/Main_Page for a description
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