Mai Hattori

Epitaxial growth and electric properties of γ-Al2O3(110) films on β-Ga2O3(010) substrates

Epitaxial growth and electrical properties of γ-Al2O3 films on β-Ga2O3(010) substrates were investigated regarding the prospect of a gate oxide in a β-Ga2O3-based MOSFET. The γ-Al2O3 films grew along the [110] direction and inherited the oxygen sublattice from β-Ga2O3 resulting in the unique in-plane epitaxial relationship of γ-Al2O3 ∥ β-Ga2O3[001]. We found that the γ-Al2O3 layer had a band gap of 7.0 eV and a type-I band alignment with β-Ga2O3 with conduction- and valence-band offsets of 1.9 and 0.5 eV, respectively. A relatively high trap density ( 2 × 1012 cm−2 eV−1) was found from the voltage shift of photoassisted capacitance–voltage curves measured for a Au/γ-Al2O3/β-Ga2O3 MOS capacitor. These results indicate good structural and electric properties and some limitations hindering the better understanding of the role of the gate dielectrics (a γ-Al2O3 interface layer naturally crystallized from amorphous Al2O3) in the β-Ga2O3 MOSFET.

Formation of indium–tin oxide ohmic contacts for β-Ga2O3

Sputter-deposited indium–tin oxide (ITO) electrodes became ohmic contacts for unintentionally doped β-Ga2O3(010) substrates with a carrier concentration of 2 × 1017 cm−3 after rapid thermal annealing in a wide range of annealing temperatures of 900–1150 °C. The formation of an ohmic contact is attributed to interdiffusion between ITO and β-Ga2O3, as evidenced by the results of transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The interdiffusion decreases the band gap and increases the donor concentration of β-Ga2O3 at the interface, and forms an intermediate semiconductor layer desirable for carrier transport. The ITO ohmic contact is particularly useful for future β-Ga2O3 devices operated at high temperatures.

Epitaxial structure and electronic property of β-Ga2O3 films grown on MgO (100) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition

We investigated heteroepitaxial growth of Si-doped Ga2O3 films on MgO (100) substrates by pulsed-laser deposition as a function of growth temperature (Tg) to find a strong correlation between the structural and electronic properties. The films were found to contain cubic γ-phase and monoclinic β-phase, the latter of which indicated rotational twin domains when grown at higher Tg. The formation of the metastable γ-phase and twin-domain structure in the stable β-phase are discussed in terms of the in-plane epitaxial relationships with a square MgO lattice, while crystallinity of the β-phase degraded monotonically with decreasing Tg. The room-temperature conductivity indicated a maximum at the middle of Tg, where the β-Ga2O3 layer was relatively highly crystalline and free from the twin-domain structure. Moreover, both crystallinity and conductivity of β-Ga2O3 films on the MgO substrates were found superior to those on α-Al2O3 (0001) substrates. A ratio of the conductivity, attained to the highest quantity o...

Band alignment at β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 (100) interface fabricated by pulsed-laser deposition

High-quality β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 (x = 0–0.37) films were epitaxially grown on β-Ga2O3 (100) substrates by oxygen-radical-assisted pulsed-laser deposition with repeating alternate ablation of single crystals of β-Ga2O3 and α-Al2O3. The bandgap was tuned from 4.55 ± 0.01 eV (x = 0) to 5.20 ± 0.02 eV (x = 0.37), where bowing behavior was observed. The band alignment at the β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 interfaces was found to be type-I with conduction- and valence-band offsets of 0.52 ± 0.08 eV (0.37 ± 0.08 eV) and 0.13 ± 0.07 eV (0.02 ± 0.07 eV) for x = 0.37 (0.27), respectively. The large conduction-band offsets are ascribed to the dominant contribution of the cation-site substitution to the conduction band.High-quality β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 (x = 0–0.37) films were epitaxially grown on β-Ga2O3 (100) substrates by oxygen-radical-assisted pulsed-laser deposition with repeating alternate ablation of single crystals of β-Ga2O3 and α-Al2O3. The bandgap was tuned from 4.55 ± 0.01 eV (x = 0) to 5.20 ± 0.02 eV (x = 0.37), where bowing behavior was observed. The band alignment at the β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 interfaces was found to be type-I with conduction- and valence-band offsets of 0.52 ± 0.08 eV (0.37 ± 0.08 eV) and 0.13 ± 0.07 eV (0.02 ± 0.07 eV) for x = 0.37 (0.27), respectively. The large conduction-band offsets are ascribed to the dominant contribution of the cation-site substitution to the conduction band.