Ultrasensitive UV-C detection based on MOCVD-grown highly crystalline ultrawide bandgap orthorhombic κ-Ga2O3

Orthorhombic κ-Ga2O3, as one of the Ga2O3 polymorphs, is considered a promising as ultrawide bandgap material for extreme environment devices. It is considered more superior than the conventional group III-V compound semiconductors and silicon carbides in extreme environments demanding material/device characteristics of high-voltage, high-temperature, high-pressure, high-impact, and high-radiation. In this study, we demonstrate ultrasensitive ultraviolet-C (UV-C) detection using Si-doped orthorhombic κ-Ga2O3 photodetectors. A 150 nm thick κ-Ga2O3 film was grown on a 2-inch diameter sapphire (α–Al2O3) wafer via metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method. The crystallinity of orthorhombic κ-Ga2O3 film was investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The ultrawide bandgap of approximately 4.9 eV was confirmed by UV transmittance measurement. For UV-C detection analysis, a planar device with a channel length of 20 μm was fabricated using Au/Ti metal contacts on the orthorhombic κ-Ga2O3 film. The device doped under 15 sccm SiH4 flow rate showed ultrahigh photoresponse of ∼72.1 A/W, Ion/Ioff of ∼14, and decent rise (∼0.35 s) and decay (∼1.79 s). Our results will contribute to the understanding on a new material phase of κ-Ga2O3, as well as on developing optoelectronics devices with high radiation hardness suitable for operation in extreme environments.