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Trap-mediated bipolar charge transport in NiO/Ga2O3 p+-n heterojunction power diodes

NiO/Ga2O3 p+-n异质结功率二极管中陷阱介导双极型电荷输运研究

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Abstract

The construction of p-NiO/n-Ga2O3 heterojunction becomes a popular alternative to overcome the technological bottleneck of p-type Ga2O3 for developing bipolar power devices for practical applications, whereas the identification of performance-limiting traps and the bipolar transport dynamics are still not exploited yet. To this end, the fundamental correlation of carrier transport, trapping and recombination kinetics in NiO/β-Ga2O3 p+-n heterojunction power diodes has been investigated. The quantitative modeling of the temperature-dependent current-voltage characteristics indicates that the modified Shockley-Read-Hall recombination mediated by majority carrier trap states with an activation energy of 0.64 eV dominates the trap-assisted tunneling process in the forward subthreshold conduction regime, while the minority carrier diffusion with near-unity ideality factors is overwhelming at the bias over the turn-on voltage. The leakage mechanism at high reverse biases is governed by the Poole-Frenkel emissions through the β-Ga2O3 bulk traps with a barrier height of 0.75 eV, which is supported by the identification of majority bulk traps with the energy level of EC − 0.75 eV through the isothermal capacitance transient spectroscopic analysis. These findings bridge the knowledge gap between bipolar charge transport and deep-level trap behaviors in Ga2O3, which is crucial to understand the reliability of Ga2O3 bipolar power rectifiers.

摘要

构筑NiO/Ga2O3 p+-n异质结是克服Ga2O3 p型掺杂瓶颈从而实现双极型功率电子器件的有效途径, 然而限制器件性能的缺陷行为与双 极型电荷输运等物理机制尚不明晰. 本论文研究了NiO/Ga2O3 p+-n异质结中陷阱介导的载流子输运、 俘获和复合动力学之间的内在关联特性. 变温电流-电压特性的量化分析表明, 在正偏亚阈值区, 陷阱辅助隧穿占据主导地位, 符合多数载流子陷阱介导的Shockley-Read-Hall复合模型, 其陷阱激活能为0.64 eV, 与深能级瞬态谱测试的陷阱能级位置(EC − 0.67 eV)非常吻合; 当正向偏压大于器件开启电压时, 器件输运特性由少数载流子扩散所主导, 器件理想因子接近于1. 在反向偏置的高场作用下, 器件漏电机制则由β-Ga2O3体材料中的陷阱引起的Poole-Frenkel (PF)发射所导致. PF发射的势垒高度为0.75 eV, 与等温变频深能级瞬态谱测得的陷阱能级位置(EC − 0.75 eV)相一致. 这一工作有助于建立NiO/Ga2O3 p+-n异质结中双极型电荷输运和深能级缺陷行为间的内在关联, 对理解和发展Ga2O3双极型功率整流器件具有重要的参考价值.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFB3605400), the State Key Research and Development Project of Guangdong (2020B010174002), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62234007, U21A20503 and U21A2071).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210023, China

    Zhengpeng Wang  (汪正鹏), He-He Gong  (巩贺贺), Xin-Xin Yu  (郁鑫鑫), Xiaoli Ji  (纪晓丽), Fang-Fang Ren  (任芳芳), Yi Yang  (杨燚), Shulin Gu  (顾书林), Youdou Zheng  (郑有炓), Rong Zhang  (张荣) & Jiandong Ye  (叶建东)

  2. Shenzhen Research Institute of Shandong University, Shenzhen, 518000, China

    Jiandong Ye  (叶建东)

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  1. Zhengpeng Wang  (汪正鹏)
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Contributions

Author contributions Wang Z performed the device fabrication and characterizations; Wang Z and Ye J analyzed the results and wrote the paper. All authors contributed to the discussion and revised the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jiandong Ye  (叶建东).

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Supplementary information Supporting data are available in the online version of the paper.

Zhengpeng Wang is a PhD candidate at the School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, China. His research is focusing on the power device physics and defect engineering.

Jiandong Ye holds the full professorship of the School of Electronic Science and Engineering at Nanjing University, China. He is engaged in the material, physics and devices of wide-bandgap semiconductors.

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Wang, Z., Gong, HH., Yu, XX. et al. Trap-mediated bipolar charge transport in NiO/Ga2O3 p+-n heterojunction power diodes. Sci. China Mater. 66, 1157–1164 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-022-2244-y

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