Swift heavy ion irradiation-induced

modifications in the electrical and surface

properties of β-Ga2O3
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0024944
Submitted: 12 August 2020 . Accepted: 25 September 2020 . Published Online: 07 October 2020

N. Manikanthababu , B. R. Tak , K. Prajna , S. Sarkar , K. Asokan , D. Kanjilal , S. R. Barman ,

R. Singh , and B. K. Panigrahi

Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0024944 117, 142105

© 2020 Author(s).
 Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl

Swift heavy ion irradiation-induced modifications

in the electrical and surface properties of b-Ga2O3
Cite as: Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0024944
Submitted: 12 August 2020 . Accepted: 25 September 2020 .
Published Online: 7 October 2020

N. Manikanthababu,1,a) B. R. Tak,2 K. Prajna,3 S. Sarkar,4 K. Asokan,5 D. Kanjilal,5 S. R. Barman,4

2
R. Singh, and B. K. Panigrahi1,6

AFFILIATIONS
1
Materials Science Group, Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, HBNI, Kalpakkam 603102, India
2
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110016, India
3
Non-Destructive Evaluation Division, MMG, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam 603102, India
4
UGC-DAE Consortium for Scientific Research, Indore, Madhya Pradesh 452017, India
5
Inter University Accelerator Centre, Aruna Asaf Ali Marg, New Delhi 110067, India
6
Electronics and Instrumentation Group, Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, HBNI, Kalpakkam 603102, India

Note: This paper is part of the Special Topic on Ultrawide Bandgap Semiconductors.
a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: [email protected]

ABSTRACT
The electrical device characteristics of Ni/b-Ga2O3 vertical Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) were measured in situ during the irradiation of
120 MeV Ag7þ swift heavy ions (SHIs). These devices exhibit SHI irradiation-induced degradation with 120 MeV Ag7þ ions in the ion flu-
ence ranges of 1  1010 to 1  1012 ions/cm2. The height of the Schottky barrier is found to decrease from 1.11 to 0.93 eV, and the ideality fac-
tor increases from 1.16 to 2.06. These changes indicate the degradation of the device with SHI irradiation. A significant four orders increase
is observed in the leakage current density from 4.04  108 to 1.98  104 A/cm2 at 1 V, and the series resistance also increases from
3.38  103 to 1.15  104 X. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements show that the Ga ions are present in divalent and trivalent states
with the spectral features having the binding energies centered at 20.2 eV and 19.9 eV (Ga 3d core-levels) before and after ion irradiation.
The O 2s peak shifts to 23.7 eV, and there is an increase in intensity and peak broadening due to the change in the trivalent to divalent state
of Ga due to the irradiation. The O(I) peak appears at 530.7 eV in the pristine sample with the Ga–O bonding with the Ga3þ state in pure
Ga2O3. Moreover, there is a significant change in the intensity and the peak width of O(II) centered at 533.0 eV after ion irradiation at the
fluence of 1  1012 ions/cm2. This indicates that there is an increase in the surface adsorbed/lattice oxygen, resulting in GaO.
Published under license by AIP Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0024944

The quest for high-performance and high-power semiconductor have been tested for their sustainability in intense radiation environ-
devices empowered the rapid development of the power electronics ments, which has been a theme of extensive research in recent years.19
industry.1–4 These prerequisites aided the evolution and growth of Irradiation-induced defect dynamics studies are useful to understand
front-line wide bandgap semiconductor materials such as GaAs, GaN, the nature of defects, such as trap states and point defects, which can
and SiC.3,5–9 However, in recent times, Ga2O3 has come into the lime- affect the device performance and operation lifetime.20,21 In addition,
light as a potential electronic material for power semiconductor device the material properties, including diffusion length, carrier mobility,
applications.10,11 Among the five polymorphs of Ga2O3, monoclinic and lifetime, will be altered by using high energy irradiation.22,23 There
b-Ga2O3 is the most stable material for high-efficiency power devices exist a few recent reports on the effects of neutrons, protons, and elec-
owing to its wide bandgap (4.9 eV), large breakdown field (8 MV/cm), trons and x-ray irradiation on the structural and electrical proper-
and superior chemical and thermal stabilities.12–14 These inimitable ties.24–34 However, the effects of swift heavy ions (SHIs) on the
qualities explore the potential of this material for new generation electrical properties of b-Ga2O3-based devices are primitive at this
power electronics.4,11,15 b-Ga2O3 devices, such as Schottky barrier stage. In general, these ions are found in nuclear reactions and in cos-
diodes (SBDs), UV-photodetectors, and metal-oxide-semiconductor- mic radiation. Cosmic particle radiation contains mostly energetic
field-effect-transistors, have been fabricated to serve as next- protons ranging from 500 to 1000 MeV/u. SHI irradiation like heavier
generation high-power electronic devices.16–18 b-Ga2O3-based devices (such as Ag) ions allows us to extrapolate these environments to

Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0024944 117, 142105-1
Published under license by AIP Publishing
 Applied Physics Letters ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/apl

understand the effect on materials and device modifications. Even

though heavier ions are very less in space, one needs to consider the
radiation risk for satellites. SHI irradiation (few MeV to hundreds of
MeV) of semiconductor devices is imperative for understanding their
behavior in harsh radiation environments.35–37 It is an exclusive tool,
which can suitably modify the material properties by either creating
or annealing out the defects.20,38 The present work focuses on the
fundamental aspects of the ion–solid interaction mechanism in the
state-of-the-art b-Ga2O3-based technology to develop and design
radiation-hardened devices.
An orientation of (201) b-Ga2O3 (M/s Tamura Corp., Japan), n-
type, and Sn-doped with a doping concentration of 1.6  1018 cm3
wafer sliced into 1 cm  1 cm was used for the present study. These
squared samples were processed for organic cleaning (Methanol dip
(3 min) ) Acetone dip (3 min) ) Methanol dip (3 min)
) Deionized water (DIW) (3 min) ) Flowing DIW cleaning (5 min))
and subsequent acidic cleaning [sulfuric peroxide mix (DIW: 30%
H2O2: 96% H2SO4 ¼ 1:1:4) (5 min) with a final step of DIW cleaning
FIG. 1. In situ I  V characteristics of Au/Ni/b-Ga2O3 SBD at various fluences of
(15 min)].39 Schottky Ni (20 nm)/Au (80 nm) circular contacts (1 mm 120 MeV Ag7þ ions.
dia.) through a metal mask were deposited using e-beam evaporation.
In order to make a vertical SBD, the Ohmic Ti (20 nm)/Au (80 nm)
contact has been deposited on the backside of b-Ga2O3 by e-beam where VD¼ V  IRs corresponds to the voltage drop across the
deposition. The samples were not processed for any thermal annealing Schottky junction; q, kB, and T refer to the electronic charge, the
or backside etching for Ohmic formation. These devices were Boltzmann constant, and the absolute temperature, respectively. V
mounted on an especially designed Cu ladder for in situ electrical denotes the bias voltage, and Rs stands for the series resistance. The
characterization upon irradiation of 120 MeV Ag7þ ions at various flu- ideality factor g is a parameter that describes the ideal slope of the
ences of 1  1010 to 1  1012 cm2 at room temperature. These experi- deviation from the actual device characteristics. The reverse saturation
ments were performed by using a 15 UD Pelletron Accelerator facility current Is, which determines the forward voltage, is given by45
available at the Inter University Accelerator Centre (IUAC), New
  
Delhi, India. A constant beam current of 0.5 particle nano-Ampère quB
(0.5 pnA) has been maintained throughout the experiment, and the Is ¼ AA T 2 exp ; (2)
kB T
beam is uniformly scanned over an area of 1 cm  1 cm on the devices.
All the in situ measurements were performed on the same device at where A is the area of the device (7.85  103 cm2), A is the
different ion fluences to evade any incongruity in the devices using an Richardson constant (41.11 A cm2 K2), and /B is the Schottky bar-
Agilent technologies B1500A semiconductor device analyzer within rier height (SBH). The slope extracted from the I vs dV/d(lnI) curve
the voltage range of 3 to þ2 V. An Al-Ka x-ray source equipped
with a Scienta R4000 analyzer was used for the XPS measurements.
The standard C 1s peak (284.8 eV) was considered as the Ref. 40. The
experimental XPS data were deconvoluted using standard CASAXPS
software.41 For analyzing the core levels of Ga and O from the asym-
metric peaks, a mixed Lorentzian–Gaussian fitting was used by sub-
tracting the Shirley background.42
The in situ I  V characteristics of b-Ga2O3 SBD at various fluen-
ces of 120 MeV Ag7þ ions are shown in Fig. 1. Figure 2 shows the
results from the SRIM-201343,44 of 120 MeV Ag7þ ion irradiation in
Au (80 nm)/Ni (20 nm)/b-Ga2O3 SBD. These simulations show that at
small depths in b-Ga2O3 SBD, the electronic energy loss (Se) is found
to be higher (two orders) than the nuclear energy loss (Sn). Ion irradia-
tion induces a significant change in the reverse leakage current density.
To understand ion irradiation-induced modifications in the b-Ga2O3
SBDs, the thermionic emission (TE) model has been used for the anal-
ysis. Consistent with the method proposed by Cheung, the current, I,
across the Metal-Semiconductor (M–S) SBD is expressed as45
    FIG. 2. Electronic and nuclear energy losses of the 120 MeV Ag7þ ion beam as a
qVD
I ¼ Is exp 1 ; (1) function of depth in the Au/Ni/b-Ga2O3/Ti/Au SBDs; inset: Schematic of the Au/Ni/
gkB T b-Ga2O3 sample structure.

Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0024944 117, 142105-2
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TABLE I. Extracted Schottky diode parameters at different ion fluences of the 120 MeV Ag7þ ion beam.

Fluence (ions/cm2) Ideality factor g Barrier height UB(eV) Series resistance Rs (X) Leakage current at 1 V (A/cm2)

Pristine (P) 1.16 6 0.05 1.11 6 0.005 3.38  103 4.04  108
1  1010 1.23 6 0.02 1.09 6 0.004 3.47  103 4.17  108
5  1010 1.69 6 0.06 0.99 6 0.004 4.30  103 3.78  107
1  1011 1.72 6 0.04 0.98 6 0.003 4.67  103 1.67  106
5  1011 1.77 6 0.02 0.97 6 0.005 5.31  103 2.36  105
1  1012 2.06 6 0.09 0.93 6 0.006 1.15  104 1.98  104

yielded ideality constant g ¼ q/kBTS, where T and S stand for the The extracted SBH for the pristine SBD is 1.09 eV with an ideality
room temperature and slope of linear fitting from the I  V data. By factor of 1.16. Nearly eight orders of rectification show the quality of
using the obtained intercept, the SBH has been estimated. The calcu- the device fabricated, as shown in Fig. 1. In the present study, as the
lated parameters of SBHs and ideality factors at various ion fluences ion fluence reached 1  1012 ions/cm2, the ideality factor raised to
are given in Table I and displayed in Fig. 3. 2.06. However, thereafter, the degradation of the device occurred (see
The high electronic energy of 32.98 keV/nm is known to create/ Fig. 3). By considering the current transport mechanism, the ideality
anneal out defects at the M–S interface. Moreover, the defects and factor as the M–S interface is highly affected by the high electronic
vacancies that are present in b-Ga2O3 are of either acceptor or donor excitation. These potent effects of 120 MeV Ag7þ ions in Ni/b-Ga2O3
type.46 An energetic ion while passing through any material loses its vertical SBDs have been explored with the model of TE.47 After an ion
energy via energy loss mechanisms. Two important energy loss mech- fluence of 5  1010 ions/cm2, a turn-on voltage shift of 0.35 V is
anisms govern the effects of SHIs, namely, electronic (Se) and nuclear observed. Moreover, the changes in the exponential slopes of the for-
energy (Sn) loss during their interaction. Considering the energy of the ward I  V characteristics in the range of 0.35 V–0.75 V were observed
ions in the material of interest, it can be stated that Se governs in the at ion fluences of 5  1010–5  1011 ions/cm2. This may be due to the
high energy regime (>1 MeV/u), while Sn dominates at low energies tunneling mechanism that is different from the normal TE mechanism
(<1 keV/u).43 In this case, the primary energy loss mechanism is gov- causing defect-assisted tunneling due to the defects that are produced
erned by Se, which is known to produce deep defect levels by excitation by the 120 MeV Ag7þ ion beam.35 However, the distortion at a fluence
and ionization of the surrounding atoms of the target material. These of 1  1012 ions/cm2 is an indication of the degradation of the devices.
defects/vacancies could serve as trap centers that effectively alter the As the ion fluence increases from 1  1010 ions/cm2, there is a substan-
electrical parameters. To visualize these changes, Se, and Sn vs depth tial increase in the number of defects that were introduced at the
have been calculated using the SRIM (2013) code44 and are shown in M–S interface. The fluence, 1  1012 ions/cm2, is sufficiently large
Fig. 2. After performing the simulations by incorporating the Au/Ti/ enough to induce defect-assisted tunneling. However, the interface
b-Ga2O3 SBD structure, the resulting values are Se ¼ 32.98 keV/nm of Ni/b-Ga2O3 has shown a radiation resistance until the fluence of
and Sn ¼ 0.17 keV/nm. The range of SHIs are 9.59 lm, and thus, ions 1  1012 ions/cm2. Ion-solid interaction creates defects primarily by
will not stop at the interface of Au/Ti/b-Ga2O3 instead will pass the displacement of atoms, and this interaction eventually leads to
through it by depositing high energy losses (both Se and Sn). both excitation and ionization inside a target material. However, the
subsequent relaxation can also be possible with high quenching time
scales, typically in picoseconds.20 In other words, athermal anneal-
ing controls the effective diffusivity of irradiation-induced defects.
Moreover, these defect states can serve as trapping centers and/or
increase the density of defect states in the lattice. However, beyond
the fluence of 1  1012 ions/cm2, a clear degradation of the device
characteristics is observed. In order to understand this degradation,
one can probe to understand the defect-assisted tunneling as the
charge carriers move, in this case, electrons across the Ni/b-Ga2O3
interface. This influences the reverse leakage current, which
increases with ion fluences. Besides this presumable consequence,
the SBH eventually decreases until an ion fluence of 1  1012 ions/
cm2. The SBH decreases from 1.11 eV to 0.93 eV (for 1  1010 to
1  1012 ions/cm2) (see Fig. 3). Fermi-level pinning is a predomi-
nant phenomenon that can alter the M–S interface by creating an
energy barrier for the charge carriers by band bending.36 The effect
of Fermi-level pinning can estimate the quality of the Ni/b-Ga2O3
interface. Practically, the SBH depends on the metal and semicon-
FIG. 3. Variation of the ideality factor (g) and SBH of Ni/b-Ga2O3 SBDs at various ductor Fermi level matching. The SBH at 0.9 eV signifies the con-
ion fluences. centration of a high density of defect states that are present at the

Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0024944 117, 142105-3
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Ni/b-Ga2O3 interface. The 120 MeV Ag7þ ions possess high Se was not processed for any thermal annealing or backside etching for
(32.98 keV/nm) at the Au/Ni/b-Ga2O3 SBD interface and a low Sn Ohmic contact formation, which could be the possible reason for
(0.17 keV/nm) value (which is negligibly small) (see Fig. 2). During the high Rs value. Moreover, the charge carrier mobility is also
the deposition of this high electronic excitation, ionization of lattice affected by the irradiation-induced deep defect centers, and this rises
atoms in b-Ga2O3 occurs. This ionization of lattice atoms may lead the Rs value.36 Also, the observation of the SBH decrease, and the
to the creation of trap centers across the interface, which eventually ideality factor increase indicates a clear degradation of the device.
modifies the electrical parameters.35 As a result, there is an increase The interface defects present across the Ni/b-Ga2O3 could also assist
in the electric field at the Ni/b-Ga2O3 interface, which lowers the the charge transport mechanism such as defect assisted tunneling,
barrier height. So the significant increase in the trap centers which, in turn, increase the ideality factor of irradiated SBDs com-
increases with fluence, causing this reduction in the SBH. The defect pared to the pristine SBD.
states, which act as trap centers/states, increase with irradiation flu- In order to correlate the anomalies of the extracted quantities in
ence. For the pristine SBD, the reverse leakage current density at the fabricated SBD device such as leakage current density, SBH, ideal-
1 V is found to be 1.31  109 A/cm2. However, there is three ity factor, and Rs value by SHI irradiation, it is quite essential to inves-
orders of significant increase in the reverse leakage current at 1 V, tigate various kinds of defects that arise in the electronic structure of
6.23  106 A/cm2, at 1  1012 ions/cm2. This infers that the defect- b-Ga2O3. The increase of such kinds of defects induced by ion beam is
assisted tunneling mechanism plays a predominant role in the a primary concern of device performance. Identifying these induced
increase in reverse leakage current, which lowers the SBH as a func- imperfections to the electronic structure aids in correlating the device
tion of fluence. The series resistance (Rs) is found to increase from performance. In such a case, XPS is a very sensitive probe to determine
3.38  103 to 1.15  104 X. Before irradiation, the pristine device the valence states and various kinds of defects in b-Ga2O3 before and

FIG. 4. (a) XPS spectra of the 3d core level of Ga, Ga3þ, and Ga2þ states with the energies centered at 20.2 eV and 19.9 eV for the pristine sample with the O 2s peak shifted
to 23.5 eV; (b) O 1s core fitted with O(I) (530.7 eV) and O(II) (531.8 eV) peaks for the pristine sample; (c) 3d core-level spectra of Ga, Ga3þ, and Ga2þ states with the energies
centered at 20.2 eV and 19.9 eV for the irradiated sample with the O 2s peak shifted to 23.7 eV; (d) O 1s core fitted with O(I) (530.7 eV) and O(II) (533.0 eV) peaks for the irra-
diated sample (1  1012 ions/cm2).

Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0024944 117, 142105-4
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after the ion irradiation.17 The XPS spectra of the pristine and ion irra- N.M. thanks SERB, GoI, for the NPDF fellowship (No. PDF/
diated samples were fitted using CASAXPS software by considering 2016/000748). We would like to thank the Nanoscale Research
the Gaussian-Lorentzian functions.48 For this analysis, full range XPS Facility (NRF), IIT Delhi, India, for SBD fabrication. We appreciate
spectra have been recorded, and the standard binding energy of the experimental support of Dr. Ashish Kumar, DST-Inspire
284.8 eV of C 1s has been considered to calibrate the data. The high- Faculty at IUAC, and Mr. Ramcharan Meena (IUAC). We also
resolution spectra of Ga 3d and O 1s core levels were probed for both thank Dr. Shammi Verma (SCL, Punjab), Ms. Anuradha (IUAC),
the pristine and irradiated samples and are shown in Fig. 4. All assign- and IUAC Pelletron group, New Delhi. The authors thank IIT
ments of peaks were done as per the standard literature and XPS data- Delhi, IUAC, UGC-DAE CSR, Indore, and Mangalore University
bases.48 Peak fitting was performed for both Ga 3d and O 1s spectral for active collaboration.
features. In the pristine sample, Ga 3d peaks have been deconvoluted
DATA AVAILABILITY
into two peaks, Ga3þ and Ga2þ states, centered at 20.2 eV and
19.9 eV46 [see Figs. 4(a) and 4(b)], respectively. These peaks are con- The data that support the findings of this study are available
strued as Ga 3d states arising from native Ga2O3. In addition, there is from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
an overlapping O 2s peak associated with these two peaks located at
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Appl. Phys. Lett. 117, 142105 (2020); doi: 10.1063/5.0024944 117, 142105-6
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