Speaker
Description
β-Ga2O3 has attracted growing attention as a new wide-bandgap semiconductor material, because it has an extremely high bandgap energy of 4.8–4.9 eV and an expected high breakdown field of 8 MV/cm. Understanding irradiation effects on β-Ga2O3 materials is essential to evaluate the electrical performance and reliability of devices in harsh radiation environments. The ion tracks and the thermal stability (473-773 K) in β-Ga2O3 single crystal irradiated with ∼5–19 MeV/u swift heavy ions (SHI) were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM). It indicates that the threshold of ion track formation is ~17 keV/nm, which is much lower than that of other wideband semiconductors, such as GaN, SiC, AlN and diamond. The average diameter and morphology of tracks annealed at 673 K or above undergo a significant change due to recrystallization. Annealing at 773 K reduces the areal track density to approximately 50%. The activation energy for thermal recovery was determined to be 0.27±0.03 eV. These findings provide valuable information for assessing the reliability of β-Ga2O3-based devices intended for operation in harsh environments.