Probing Interface Trapping Characteristics of Au/β-Ga2O3 Schottky Barrier Diode on Si (100)

Gallium Oxide (Ga
₂
O
₃
) and Sapphire have been a preferred choice of substrates for fabricating
$\beta $
-Ga
₂
O
₃
Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs). However, Si (100) substrate with low cost and relatively high thermal conductivity has been explored as a platform in this work for the growth of
$\beta $
-Ga
₂
O
₃
using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) results confirm the good crystalline quality and uniformity of the Ga
₂
O
₃
film, respectively. The roughness (RMS) of 1.44 nm of the film surface is confirmed by the atomic force microscope (AFM) technique. The current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics are employed for investigating the electrical and interface trap properties of the SBDs. The Schottky barrier height measured at room temperature from I-V and C-V characteristics are 0.78 eV and 1.17 eV, respectively and the ideality factor turns out to be 1.95. The charge transport mechanism of SBD has been investigated using the log-log plot of I-V characteristics. The Schottky metal (Au)/
$\beta $
-Ga
₂
O
₃
interface trap density (
$D_{it}$
) is obtained on the order of
$\sim 10^{9}$
cm
⁻²
eV
⁻¹
using the conventional conductance method. In the energy range of
${\text{E}}_{c}$
-0.27 eV to
${\text{E}}_{c}$
-1.57 eV, the density of interface states changes from
$3.72\times 10^{9}$
eV
⁻¹
cm
⁻²
to
$3.10\times 10^{9}$
eV
⁻¹
cm
⁻²
, respectively. The maximum value of
$D_{it}$
is found to be
$4.38\times 10^{9}$
eV
⁻¹
cm
⁻²
at
${\text{E}}_{c}$
-0.68 eV. The value of
$D_{it}$
can be further reduced for potential and reliable integration of
$\beta $
-Ga
₂
O
₃
with Si electronics.