Effect of 5 MeV proton irradiation damage on performance of β-Ga2O3 photodetectors

Abstract

Planar thin film β-Ga2O3 photodetectors were irradiated with 5 MeV protons at doses from 1013 to 1015 cm−2, and the resulting effects on photocurrent, responsivity, quantum efficiency, and photo-to-dark current ratio at 254 nm wavelength were measured at both 25 and 150 °C. The photocurrent increased with dose due to the introduction of damage from nonionizing energy loss by the protons. The total calculated vacancy concentration increased from 5 × 1015 to 5 × 1017 cm−3 over the dose range investigated. The dark current increased in proportion with the implant dose, leading to a decrease in the ratio of photocurrent to dark current. The photocurrent induced by 254 nm illumination increased with dose, from ∼0.3 × 10−7 A at 25 °C for a dose of 1013 cm−2 to ∼10−6 A at a dose of 1015 cm−2 at a fixed light intensity of 760 μW/cm2. The photo-to-dark current ratio decreased from ∼60 in the control samples to ∼9 after proton doses of 1015 cm−2, with corresponding external quantum efficiencies of ∼103% in control samples, ∼2 × 103% for a dose of 1013 cm−2, and 104% for a dose of 1015 cm−2. The mechanism for the increase in photocurrent is the introduction of gap states, since the dark current of the photodetectors was increased by illuminating with sub-bandgap (red or green laser light) for the proton irradiated samples.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
May 20, 2016
Source ID
10.1116/1.4950872

Entities

People

  • Charles. R. Eddy Jr.
  • Fan Ren
  • Gwangseok Yang
  • Jennifer K Hite
  • Jihyun Kim
  • Michael A. Mastro
  • Shihyun Ahn
  • Sooyeoun Oh
  • Stephen Pearton
  • Yi-hsuan Lin
  • Younghun Jung

Organizations

  • Defense Threat Reduction Agency
  • Korea Institute of Energy Technology Evaluation and Planning
  • Korea University
  • Office of Naval Research
  • United States Naval Research Laboratory
  • University of Florida

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science
  • Physics

Readers

  • Semiconductor Device Technology

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers
  • Quantum Computing