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β-phase gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is an emerging ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductor with a bandgap energy of ∼ 4.8 eV and a predicted high critical electric field strength of ∼8 MV/cm, enabling promising applications in next generation high power electronics and deep ultraviolet optoelectronics. The advantages of Ga2O3 also stem from its availability of single crystal bulk native substrates synthesized from melt, and its well-controllable n-type doping from both bulk growth and thin film epitaxy. Among several thin film growth methods, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) has been demonstrated as an enabling technology for developing high-quality epitaxy of Ga2O3 thin films, (AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys, and heterostructures along various crystal orientations and with different phases. This tutorial summarizes the recent progresses in the epitaxial growth of β-Ga2O3 thin films via different growth methods, with a focus on the growth of Ga2O3 and its compositional alloys by MOCVD. The challenges for the epitaxial development of β-Ga2O3 are discussed, along with the opportunities of future works to enhance the state-of-the-art device performance based on this emerging UWBG semiconductor material system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in situ metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) growth of Al2O3 dielectrics on β-Ga2O3 and β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films is investigated as a function of crystal orientations and Al compositions of β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films. The interface and film qualities of Al2O3 dielectrics are evaluated by high-resolution x-ray diffraction and scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging, which indicate the growth of high-quality amorphous Al2O3 dielectrics with abrupt interfaces on (010), (100), and ( 2 ¯ 01) oriented β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films. The surface stoichiometries of Al2O3 deposited on all orientations of β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 are found to be well maintained with a bandgap energy of 6.91 eV as evaluated by high-resolution x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, which is consistent with the atomic layer deposited (ALD) Al2O3 dielectrics. The evolution of band offsets at both in situ MOCVD and ex situ ALD deposited Al2O3/β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 is determined as a function of Al composition, indicating the influence of the deposition method, orientation, and Al composition of β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films on resulting band alignments. Type II band alignments are determined at the MOCVD grown Al2O3/β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 interfaces for the (010) and (100) orientations, whereas type I band alignments with relatively low conduction band offsets are observed along the ( 2 ¯ 01) orientation. The results from this study on MOCVD growth and band offsets of amorphous Al2O3 deposited on differently oriented β-Ga2O3 and β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films will potentially contribute to the design and fabrication of future high-performance β-Ga2O3 and β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 based transistors using MOCVD in situ deposited Al2O3 as a gate dielectric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the structural and electrical properties of metalorganic chemical vapor deposited Si-doped β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films grown on (010) β-Ga2O3 substrates are investigated as a function of Al composition. The room temperature Hall mobility of 101 cm2/V s and low temperature peak mobility (T = 65 K) of 1157 cm2/V s at carrier concentrations of 6.56 × 1017 and 2.30 × 1017 cm−3 are measured from 6% Al composition samples, respectively. The quantitative secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) characterization reveals a strong dependence of Si and other unintentional impurities, such as C, H, and Cl concentrations in β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films, with different Al compositions. Higher Al compositions in β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 result in lower net carrier concentrations due to the reduction of Si incorporation efficiency and the increase of C and H impurity levels that act as compensating acceptors in β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films. Lowering the growth chamber pressure reduces Si concentrations in β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films due to the increase of Al compositions as evidenced by comprehensive SIMS and Hall characterizations. Due to the increase of lattice mismatch between the epifilm and substrate, higher Al compositions lead to cracking in β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films grown on β-Ga2O3 substrates. The (100) cleavage plane is identified as a major cracking plane limiting the growth of high-quality Si-doped (010) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films beyond the critical thicknesses, which leads to highly anisotropic and inhomogeneous behaviors in terms of conductivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growths of monoclinic (AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films up to 99% Al contents are demonstrated via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using trimethylgallium (TMGa) as the Ga precursor. The utilization of TMGa, rather than triethylgallium, enables a significant improvement of the growth rates (>2.5 μm h−1) of β‐(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films on (010), (100), and (2¯01) β‐Ga2O3 substrates. By systematically tuning the precursor molar flow rates, growth of coherently strained phase pure β‐(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films is demonstrated by comprehensive material characterizations via high‐resolution X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic‐resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) imaging. Monoclinic (AlxGa1−x)2O3 films with Al contents up to 99, 29, and 16% are achieved on (100), (010), and (2¯01) β‐Ga2O3 substrates, respectively. Beyond 29% of Al incorporation, the (010) (AlxGa1−x)2O3 films exhibit β‐ to γ‐phase segregation. β‐(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films grown on (2¯01) β‐Ga2O3 show local segregation of Al along (100) plane. Record‐high Al incorporations up to 99% in monoclinic (AlxGa1−x)2O3 grown on (100) Ga2O3 are confirmed from XRD, STEM, electron nanodiffraction, and X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. These results indicate great promises of MOCVD development of β‐(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films and heterostructures with high Al content and growth rates using TMGa for next‐generation high‐power and high‐frequency electronic devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Letter, the role of background carbon in metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) β-Ga2O3 growth using trimethylgallium (TMGa) as the Ga precursor was investigated. The quantitative C and H incorporations in MOCVD β-Ga2O3 thin films grown at different growth rates and temperatures were measured via quantitative secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS). The SIMS results revealed both [C] and [H] increase as the TMGa molar flow rate/growth rate increases or growth temperature decreases. The intentional Si incorporation in MOCVD β-Ga2O3 thin films decreases as the growth rate increases or the growth temperature decreases. For films grown at relatively fast growth rates (GRs) (TMGa > 58 μmol/min, GR > 2.8 μm/h) or relatively low temperature (<950 °C), the [C] increases faster than that of the [H]. The experimental results from this study demonstrate the previously predicted theory—H can effectively passivate the compensation effect of C in n-type β-Ga2O3. The extracted net doping concentration from quantitative SIMS {[Si]-([C]-[H])} agrees well with the free carrier concentration measured from Hall measurement. The revealing of the role of C compensation in MOCVD β-Ga2O3 and the effect of H incorporation will provide guidance on designing material synthesis for targeted device applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the interaction of n-type dopants in Si doped (AlxGa1−x)2O3 films with varying Al content over the entire composition range (x = 0%–100%) was analyzed using atom probe tomography. An almost uniform dopant distribution with dopant density in the range of 1018 cm−3 was obtained in (AlxGa1−x)2O3 layers with Al contents, x < 0.60. At x , small Si segregated zones were observed which was attributed to the increased donor-acceptor transition centers or bond length differences in Al–O, Ga–O and Si–O at high Al content. We have demonstrated that for the single phase β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films with Al content of x < 0.30, dopants prefer to occupy on Ga sites while Al site is preferred for high Al content (x > 0.50) (AlxGa1−x)2O3 layers. It was also observed for Al content, x = 0.30–0.50, no specific cationic site occupancy was observed, Si occupies either Al or Ga sites. This can be attributed to highly inhomogeneous layers within this Al composition range due to which dopant Si atoms are either in the Al-rich or Al-depleted regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The valence and conduction band offsets at (100) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 heterointerfaces with the increasing Al composition are determined via x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The (100) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films with the Al composition of 0.10 < x < 0.52 are grown on (100) β-Ga2O3 substrates by the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition method. By examining the onset of inelastic energy loss in core-level atomic spectra, the bandgaps of β-Ga2O3 and β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys with different Al compositions are measured from 4.83 ± 0.12 eV (x = 0) to 5.85 ± 0.08 eV (x = 0.52). The valence band offsets are determined to be −0.06 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.10), −0.11 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.33), and −0.19 ± 0.06 eV (x = 0.52). The conduction band offsets of 0.34 ± 0.17 eV (x = 0.10), 0.62 ± 0.17 eV (x = 0.33), and 1.21 ± 0.16 eV (x = 0.52) are determined from the extracted bandgaps of β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 alloys. The determined band alignments at β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/β-Ga2O3 interfaces reveal the formation of type-II (staggered gap) heterojunctions for all Al compositions investigated. The bowing parameters obtained from the quadratic fitting of both conduction band minimum and valence band maximum values are estimated to be 1.25 eV and 0.005 eV, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Letter, in situ Mg doping in β-Ga2O3 was demonstrated via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) epitaxy. The electrical insulating property of the Mg acceptors in β-Ga2O3 was found to be intrinsically activated in the as-grown Mg-doped β-Ga2O3 thin films. Growth conditions for MOCVD β-Ga2O3 were further explored and optimized at a lower growth temperature regime, leading to a better confinement of the Mg-doping profile. Detailed analysis of Mg diffusion characteristics revealed a diffusion barrier energy Ebarrier ∼ 0.9 eV for Mg in MOCVD β-Ga2O3, which is likely related to an interstitial-assisted process. Surface morphologies and electron transport were characterized on samples grown with different growth temperatures and Mg doping levels. The MOCVD growth method demonstrated its feasibility to grow semi-insulating Mg-doped β-Ga2O3 epilayers with controllable Mg incorporation while maintaining good material quality and smooth surface morphology. From capacitance-voltage charge profiling, it is verified that the Mg-doped buffer layer grown at the substrate-epilayer interface could effectively compensate the charge accumulation at the interface. The in situ acceptor doping of Mg in MOCVD β-Ga2O3 will provide versatility for designing β-Ga2O3 power devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films are grown on ( 2 ¯ 01) β-Ga2O3 substrates via metal organic chemical vapor deposition to investigate the solubility of Al in β-phase Ga2O3. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra reveal crystalline quality ( 2 ¯ 01) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 thin films with Al compositions up to 48%. The Al compositions are further confirmed by high resolution x-ray spectroscopy measurements and energy-dispersive x-ray spectra (EDS) mapping. The bandgap energies extracted from XPS spectra range between 5.20 ± 0.06 eV and 5.72 ± 0.08 eV for x = 21%–48%. The surface morphology evaluated by both scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy shows elongated features with granules along the [010] direction, which are suppressed with the increasing Al content. A systematic growth study through tuning growth parameters indicates that the chamber pressure plays an important role in both surface morphology and Al incorporation. Material characterization via high resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and STEM-EDS reveals Al fluctuations in the sample with the 48% Al composition. Atomic resolution STEM imaging and XRD spectra for ( 2 ¯ 01) β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/Ga2O3 superlattice structures confirm that the periodicity of the β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3/Ga2O3 sub-layers is well maintained with high-Al compositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new record‐high room‐temperature electron Hall mobility (μRT = 194 cm2 V−1 s−1 at n ≈ 8 × 1015 cm−3) for β‐Ga2O3 is demonstrated in the unintentionally doped thin film grown on (010) semi‐insulating substrate via metal‐organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). A peak electron mobility of ≈9500 cm2 V−1 s−1 is achieved at 45 K. Further investigation on the transport properties indicates the existence of sheet charges near the epilayer/substrate interface. Si is identified as the primary contributor to the background carrier in both the epilayer and the interface, originating from both surface contamination and growth environment. The pregrowth hydrofluoric acid cleaning of the substrate leads to an obvious decrease in Si impurity both at the interface and in the epilayer. In addition, the effect of the MOCVD growth condition, particularly the chamber pressure, on the Si impurity incorporation is studied. A positive correlation between the background charge concentration and the MOCVD growth pressure is confirmed. It is noteworthy that in a β‐Ga2O3 film with very low bulk charge concentration, even a reduced sheet charge density plays an important role in the charge transport properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lack of p-type doping has impeded the development of vertical gallium oxide (Ga2O3) devices. Current blocking layers (CBLs) using implanted deep acceptors have been used to demonstrate vertical devices. This paper presents a pioneering demonstration of in situ Mg-doped β-Ga2O3 CBLs grown using metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. The Mg-doping density during growth was calibrated by quantitative secondary ion mass spectroscopy. Electrical test structures were designed with in situ Mg doped layers with various targeted Mg doping concentrations. The effectiveness of the CBL is characterized by using temperature-dependent current–voltage measurements using n-Mg-doped-n structures, providing crucial insight into the underlying mechanisms. Pulsed measurements show similar blocking characteristics as DC. To further validate the experimental results, a TCAD simulation is performed, and the electrically active effective doping is found to be dependent on the Mg-doping density, offering an alternate perspective on the optimization of CBL performance. Breakdown measurements show a peak 4 MV/cm field strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Letter reports a high performance β -Ga2O3 thin channel MOSFET with T gate and degenerately doped (n++) source/drain contacts regrown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. Highly scaled T-gate with a gate length of 160–200 nm was fabricated to achieve enhanced RF performance and passivated with 200 nm silicon nitride. Peak drain current (ID,MAX) of 285 mA/mm and peak transconductance (gm) of 52 mS/mm were measured at 10 V drain bias with 23.5 Ω mm on resistance (RON). Metal/n++ contact resistance of 0.078 Ω mm was extracted from transfer length measurements. RON is possibly dominated by interface resistance between channel and highly doped n++ regrown layer. A gate-to-drain breakdown voltage of 192 V is measured for LGD = 355 nm resulting in average breakdown field (EAVG) of 5.4 MV/cm. This EAVG is the highest reported among all sub-micron gate length lateral FETs. Current gain cut off frequency (fT) of 11 GHz and record power gain cut off frequency (fMAX) of approximately 48 GHz were extracted from small signal measurements. fT is limited by DC-RF dispersion due to interface traps which needs further investigation. The fT·VBR product is 2.112 THz V for 192 V breakdown voltage. Device surpasses the switching figure of merit of Silicon and competitive with mature wide bandgap devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we investigated the evolution of microstructural chemistry of metal organic chemical vapor deposition grown (010) (AlxGa1x)2O3 films with varying Al contents, x 0.10-1.0, using atom probe tomography (APT). At a low Al content (x 0.25), the films are homogeneous, where layer inhomogeneity appears at a high Al content (x>0.25). Further increasing the Al content up to x 0.60 results in a homogeneous (AlxGa1x)2O3 layer. This change in microstructural features was linked to the phase transformation of (AlxGa1x)2O3 using a manifold learning approach to capture the governing features hidden in the data dimensionality. Combining APT to unsupervised machine learning enables APT to be an independent material characterization tool to investigate the microstructure, chemical composition, and phase related information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding the thermal stability and degradation mechanism of β-Ga2O3 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) is crucial for their high-power electronics applications. This work examines the high temperature performance of the junctionless lateral β-Ga2O3 FinFET grown on a native β-Ga2O3 substrate, fabricated by metal-assisted chemical etching with Al2O3 gate oxide and Ti/Au gate metal. The thermal exposure effect on threshold voltage (Vth), subthreshold swing (SS), hysteresis, and specific on-resistance (Ron,sp), as a function of temperature up to 298 °C, is measured and analyzed. SS and Ron,sp increased with increasing temperatures, similar to the planar MOSFETs, while a more severe negative shift of Vth was observed for the high aspect-ratio FinFETs here. Despite employing a much thicker epilayer (∼2 μm) for the channel, the high temperature performance of Ion/Ioff ratios and SS of the FinFET in this work remains comparable to that of the planar β-Ga2O3 MOSFETs reported using epilayers ∼10–30× thinner. This work paves the way for further investigation into the stability and promise of β-Ga2O3 FinFETs compared to their planar counterparts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In situ etching using Ga flux in an ultra-high vacuum environment like molecular beam epitaxy is introduced as a method to make high aspect ratio three-dimensional (3D) structures in β -Ga2O3. Etching of β -Ga2O3 due to excess Ga adatoms on the epilayer surface had been viewed as non-ideal for epitaxial growth especially since it results in plateauing and lowering of the growth rate. In this study, we use this well-known reaction from epitaxial growth to intentionally etch β -Ga2O3. We demonstrate etch rate ranging from 2.9 to 30 nm/min with the highest reported etch rate being only limited by the highest Ga flux used. Patterned in situ etching is also demonstrated and used to study the effect of fin orientation on the sidewall profiles and dopant (Si) segregation on the etched surface. Using in situ Ga etching, we also demonstrate 150 nm wide fins and 200 nm wide nanopillars with high aspect ratio. This etching method could enable future development of highly scaled vertical and lateral 3D devices in β -Ga2O3. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The influence of growth temperature on the distribution (concentrations and energy levels) of individual defect states in metal organic chemical vapor deposition-grown, Si-doped β-Ga2O3 is investigated. A combination of deep level thermal transient/optical spectroscopies and admittance spectroscopy (AS) was used to quantitatively monitor the evolution of trap states throughout the ∼4.8 eV bandgap. States are observed at EC-0.12 eV by AS; at EC-0.4 eV by deep level transient spectroscopy; and at EC-1.2 eV, EC-2.0 eV, and EC-4.4 eV by deep level optical spectroscopy, and showed different dependencies on growth temperatures ranging from 800 °C to 920 °C. The EC-0.4 eV and EC-4.4 eV states both displayed a strong reduction in its concentration with increasing growth temperature, whereas no consistent trends were seen for the states at EC-1.2 eV and 2.0 eV over the temperature range studied. In contrast, the concentration of the EC-0.12 eV trap monotonically increased over the same range of increasing growth temperature, which tracked a slight, monotonic increase in overall Si concentration measured by secondary ion mass spectroscopy with growth temperature. The opposing trends in concentrations for some of these states shifted the dominant deep level in the bandgap from the EC-4.4 eV state at the lowest growth temperature explored here to the EC-0.12 eV state at the highest growth temperature. The shifting dominance of various bandgap states can have important ramifications on β-Ga2O3 device behavior, and the different trends for these deep levels cannot only guide further growth optimization but also advance the identification of their physical sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]