Effect of Electron Irradiation and Defect Analysis of β-Ga2O3 Schottky Barrier Diodes

The effects of 1 MeV electron irradiation on $\beta $ -Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) were studied in this work. After an electron irradiation fluence of $1\times 10\,\,^{{16}}$ cm−2, the forward turn-on voltage of $\beta $ -Ga2O3 SBD decreased from 0.82 to 0.77 V, the reverse current at −100 V decreased by 79%, the height of the Schottky barrier decreased from 1.01 to 0.92 eV, and the ideality factor increased from 1.04 to 1.13, indicating that the electrical characteristics of the $\beta $ -Ga2O3 SBD had degraded. Through ${C}$ – ${V}$ testing, a carrier removal rate of 7.9 cm−1 was determined. The deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) results showed that the concentration of native defects at the ${E} _{C} -0.75$ position increased sharply after irradiation, which may be the main reason for the degradation of the $\beta $ -Ga2O3 SBD performance. The research results reveal the impact of high-energy electron irradiation on the $\beta $ -Ga2O3 SBD, providing a basis for its application in harsh radiation environments.