On the nature of photosensitivity gain in Ga2O3 Schottky diode detectors: Effects of hole trapping by deep acceptors

Lightly n-type doped Ga2O3 layers grown by Halide Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) on bulk n(+)-Ga2O3 substrates were subjected to irradiation with fast reactor neutrons, 20 MeV protons, or treatment in high ion density Ar plasma. These treatments lead to a marked increase in the concentration of deep acceptors in the lower half of the bandgap. These acceptors have optical ionization thresholds near 2.3 eV and 3.1 eV. There is a simultaneous strong enhancement of the photocurrent of Schottky diodes fabricated on these layers in the UV spectral range, and a large increase in the Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) collection efficiency. The gain in photocurrent at -10 V reached 18 times for neutron and proton irradiated samples, and 10(4) times for the plasma treated samples. Similar increases in gain were observed in the EBIC current collection efficiency for beam energy 4 keV. With such beam energy, the electron-hole pairs are generated well within the space charge region. The results are explained by assuming that the capture of photoinduced or electron-beam-induced holes by the deep acceptors gives rise to a decrease in the effective Schottky barrier height and an increase of the electron current flow that is responsible for the observed high gain. The reported observation could form a basis for radical improvement of photosensitivity of Ga2O3-based solar-blind photodetectors. However, the photocurrent build-up and decay times in this mechanism are inherently long, on the order of some seconds. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.