High-temperature operation of metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) UV photodetectors fabricated on pulsed laser deposited β-Ga2O3 thin films has been investigated. These photodetectors were operated up to 250 °C temperature under 255 nm illumination. The photo current to dark current (PDCR) ratio of about 7100 was observed at room temperature (RT) while it had a value 2.3 at 250 °C at 10 V applied bias. A decline in photocurrent was observed from RT to 150 °C and then it increased with temperature up to 250 °C. The suppression of the blue band was also observed from 150 °C temperature which indicated that self-trapped holes in Ga2O3 became unstable. Temperature-dependent rise and decay times of carriers were analyzed to understand the photocurrent mechanism and persistence photocurrent at high temperatures. Coupled electron-phonon interaction with holes was found to influence the photoresponse in the devices. The obtained results are encouraging and significant for high-temperature applications of β-Ga2O3 MSM deep UV photodetectors.

R. (2021). Recent advances in the growth of gallium oxide thin films employing various growth techniques-A review.

Organic molecular monolayers (MoLs) have been used for improving the performance of various electronic device structures. In this work, the concept of organic molecular surface modification is applied for improving the performance of GaN-based metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors (PDs). Organic molecules of phenol-functionalized metallated porphyrin (hydroxyl-phenyl-zinc-tetra-phenyl-porphyrin (Zn-TPPOH)) were adsorbed on GaN, and Ni/Zn-TPPOH/GaN/Zn-TPPOH/Ni PD structures were fabricated. This process was beneficial in two ways: first, the reverse-bias dark current was reduced by 1000 times, and second, the photocurrent was enhanced by ∼100 times, in comparison to the dark and photocurrent values obtained for Ni/GaN/Ni MSM PDs, at high voltages of ±10 V. The responsivity of the devices was increased from 0.22 to 4.14 kA/W at 5 μW/cm2 optical power density at −10 V bias and at other voltages also. In addition to this, other PD parameters such as photo-to-dark current ratio and UV-to-visible rejection ratio were also enhanced. The spectral selectivity of the PDs was improved, which means that the molecularly modified devices became more responsive to UV spectral region and less responsive to visible spectral region, in comparison to bare GaN-based devices. Photoluminescence measurements, power-dependent photocurrent characteristics, and time-resolved photocurrent measurements revealed that the MoL was passivating the defect-related states on GaN. In addition, Kelvin probe force microscopy showed that the MoL was also playing with the surface charge (due to surface states) on GaN, leading to increased Schottky barrier height in dark conditions. Resultant to both these phenomena, the reverse-bias dark current was reduced for metal/MoL/GaN/MoL/metal PD structures. Further, the unusual photoconductive gain in the molecularly modified devices has been attributed to Schottky barrier lowering for UV-illuminated conditions, leading to enhanced photocurrent.

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Wearable gallium oxide solar-blind photodetector fabricated on muscovite mica is reported for roomtemperature as well as high-temperature operations. The ultrahigh photoresponsivity of 9.7 A/W is obtained for 5 V applied bias at room temperature under 75 μW/cm 2 weak illumination of 270 nm wavelength. The detector enables very low noise equivalent power (NEP) of 9 × 10 −13 W/Hz 1/2 and ultrahigh detectivity of 2 × 10 12 jones which shows the magnificent detection sensitivity. Further, bending tests are performed for robust utilization of flexible detectors up to 500 bending cycles with each bending radius of 5 mm. After 500 bending cycles, the device shows a slight photocurrent decrease.The bending performances exhibit excellent potential for wearable applications. Moreover, photocurrent and dark current characteristics above room temperature demonstrate the outstanding functionalities until 523 K temperature, which is remarkable for flexible photodetectors. The obtained results show the potential of gallium oxide solar-blind photodetectors at room-temperature and high-temperature environments, paving the way for futuristic smart and flexible sensors.

A direct wide bandgap of 6.2 eV, high temperature robustness, and radiation hardness make aluminum nitride (AlN) a preferable semiconductor for deep ultraviolet (UV) photodetection. However, the performance and reliability of AlN-based devices is adversely affected by a large density of surface states present in AlN. In this work, we have investigated the potential of a monolayer of organic molecules in passivating the surface states of AlN, which improved the performance of AlN-based metal− semiconductor−metal (MSM) deep UV photodetector. The organic molecules of the meso-5,10,15-triphenyl-20-(p-hydroxyphenyl)porphyrin Zn(II) complex (ZnTPP(OH)) were successfully adsorbed on an AlN surface, forming a self-assembled monolayer (SAM). The molecular layer was characterized by contact angle measurement, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The surface modification of AlN effectively reduced the dark current of the photodetector by 10 times without degrading the magnitude of photocurrent, especially at low voltages. The photo to dark current ratio (PDCR) was enhanced from 930 to 7835 at −2 V, and the responsivity doubled from 0.3 to 0.6 mA/W at 5 V. Moreover, the rise and fall times of the detector were found to decrease after the surface modification process. Our results suggest that SAM of porphyrin molecules effectively passivated the surface states in AlN, which resulted in improved photodetector performance.

Flexible and self-powered deep ultraviolet (UV) photodetectors are pivotal for next-generation electronic skins to enrich human life quality. The fabrication of epitaxial β-Ga2O3 thin films is challenging on flexible substrates due to high-temperature growth requirements. Herein, β-Ga2O3 ($$\stackrel{-}{2}$$ 2 - 0 1) films are hetero-epitaxially grown on ultra-thin and environment-friendly muscovite mica which is the first time β-Ga2O3 epitaxy growth on any flexible substrate. Integration of Gallium oxide with muscovite enables high-temperature processing as well as excellent flexibility compared to polymer substrates. Additionally, the metal–semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector on β-Ga2O3 layer shows an ultra-low dark current of 800 fA at zero bias. The photovoltaic peak responsivity of 11.6 µA/W is obtained corresponding to very weak illumination of 75 μW/cm2 of 265 nm wavelength. Thermally stimulated current (TSC) measurements are employed to investigate the optically active trap states. Among these traps, trap with an activation energy of 166 meV dominates the persistence photocurrent in the devices. Finally, photovoltaic detectors have shown excellent photocurrent stability under bending induced stress up to 0.32%. Hence, this novel heteroepitaxy opens the new way for flexible deep UV photodetectors.

Temperature dependent current transport mechanism in Ni/β-Ga2O3 Schottky Barrier Diodes was studied using current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characterization techniques in the range of 78–350 K. Schottky barrier height ϕ b0 and ideality factor ɳ from I-V characteristics were found to be 1.27 eV and 1.12, respectively, at room temperature. Plots of barrier height and ideality factor with inverse of temperature show strong temperature dependency and a deviation from barrier height obtained from C-V characteristics. The temperature dependence of barrier height and ideality factor assigned to barrier inhomogeneity at Ni/β-Ga2O3 interface, and modulated by the potential fluctuation model. Diode turn-on voltage and turn-on resistance at 300 K were found to be 1.08 eV and 7.80 mΩ-cm2, respectively. A large rectification ratio of the order of 1012 was obtained at room temperature and also the rectification ratio of the order of 109 was consistent over the whole temperature range (78–350 K).