Research Article
Properties of the Horizontal Structural P-Type β-Ga2O3 Schottky Barrier Diode Fabricated by the Thermal Oxidation of GaN in N2O Environment
More Detail
1 School of Ocean Information Engineering, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China2 School of Science, Jimei University, Xiamen 361021, China3 School of Electronic Science and Technology, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China* Corresponding Author
Applied Functional Materials, 6(2), June 2026, 1-9, https://doi.org/10.35745/afm2026v06.02.0002
Submitted: 21 July 2025, Published: 30 June 2026
OPEN ACCESS 1 Views 0 Downloads
ABSTRACT
Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) are high-speed, low-power electronic devices that are widely used in high-frequency and microwave communication circuits, as well as in power electronics. In this study, thermal oxidation was employed to convert undoped single-crystal gallium nitride (GaN) into nitrogen-doped polycrystalline β-Ga2O3 in the N2O atmosphere at 1000 °C. A horizontal p-type SBD was fabricated using a "high-magnesium and low-aluminum" alloy (containing 90% Mg and 10% Al by mass) as the circular Schottky contact with a diameter of 2000 μm, directly on the nitrogen-doped β-Ga2O3 film without incorporating a p– β-Ga2O3 drift layer. At room temperature (300 K), under atmospheric conditions, the SBD exhibited favorable rectification characteristics, with an ideality factor of 1.62. Additionally, the temperature-dependent behavior of the Schottky barrier height and ideality factor was investigated under vacuum conditions.
CITATION (APA)
Zhou, H., Wang, X., Chen, W., & Wei, S. (2026). Properties of the Horizontal Structural P-Type β-Ga2O3 Schottky Barrier Diode Fabricated by the Thermal Oxidation of GaN in N2O Environment. Applied Functional Materials, 6(2), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.35745/afm2026v06.02.0002
REFERENCES
- Pearton, S.J.; Yang, J.; Cary, P.H.; Ren, F.; Kim, J.; Tadjer, M.J.; et al. A review of Ga2O3 materials, processing, and devices. Appl. Phys. Rev. 2018, 5, 011301. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5006941
- Higashiwaki, M.; Sasaki, K.; Murakami, H.; Kumagai, Y.; Koukitu, A.; Kuramata, A.; et al. Recent progress in Ga2O3 power devices. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 2016, 31, 034001. https://doi.org/10.1088/0268-1242/31/3/034001.
- Mastro, M.A.; Kuramata, A.; Calkins, J.; Kim, J.; Ren, F.; Pearton, S.J. Perspective-Opportunities and Future Directions for Ga2O3. ECS J. Solid State Sci. Technol. 2017, 6, P356–P359. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0031707jss.
- Galazka, Z. β-Ga2O3 for wide-bandgap electronics and optoelectronics. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 2018, 33, 113001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/aadf78.
- Tsao, J.Y.; Chowdhury, S.; Hollis, M.A.; Jena, D.; Johnson, N.M.; Jones, K.A.; et al. Ultrawide‐Bandgap Semiconductors: Research Opportunities and Challenges. Adv. Electron. Mater. 2018, 4, 1600501. https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.201600501.
- Xue, H.; He, Q.; Jian, G.; Long, S.; Pang, T.; Liu, M. An Overview of the Ultrawide Bandgap Ga2O3 Semiconductor-Based Schottky Barrier Diode for Power Electronics Application. Nanoscale Res. Lett. 2018, 13, 290. https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-018-2712-1.
- Higashiwaki, M.; Kuramata, A.; Murakami, H.; Kumagai, Y. State-of-the-art technologies of gallium oxide power devices. J. Phys. D Appl. Phys. 2017, 50, 333002. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/aa7aff
- Galazka, Z.; Irmscher, K.; Uecker, R.; Bertram, R.; Pietsch, M.; Kwasniewski, A.; et al. On the bulk β-Ga2O3 single crystals grown by the Czochralski method. J. Cryst. Growth 2014, 404, 184–191. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2014.07.021
- Suzuki, N.; Ohira, S.; Tanaka, M.; Sugawara, T.; Nakajima, K.; Shishido, T. Fabrication and characterization of transparent conductive Sn‐doped β‐Ga2O3 single crystal. Phys. Status Solidi C 2007, 4, 2310–2313. https://doi.org/10.1002/pssc.200674884
- Mu, W.; Jia, Z.; Yin, Y.; Hu, Q.; Li, Y.; Wu, B.; et al. High quality crystal growth and anisotropic physical characterization of β-Ga2O3 single crystals grown by EFG method. J. Alloys Compd. 2017, 714, 453–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2017.04.185
- Feng, Z.; Bhuiyan, A.F.M.A.U.; Kalarickal, N.K.; Rajan, S.; Zhao, H. Mg acceptor doping in MOCVD (010) β-Ga2O3. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2020, 117, 222106. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0031562
- Modak, S.; Lundh, J.S.; Al-Mamun, N.S.; Chernyak, L.; Haque, A.; Tu, T.Q.; et al. Growth and characterization of α-Ga2O3 on sapphire and nanocrystalline β-Ga2O3 on diamond substrates by halide vapor phase epitaxy. J. Vac. Sci. Technol. A 2022, 40, 062703. https://doi.org/10.1116/6.0002115
- Kalarickal, N.K.; Xia, Z.; McGlone, J.; Krishnamoorthy, S.; Moore, W.; Brenner, M.; et al. Mechanism of Si doping in plasma assisted MBE growth of β-Ga2O3O3. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2019, 115, 152106. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5123149.
- Mondal, A.K.; Deivasigamani, R.; Ping, L.K.; Shazni Mohammad Haniff, M.A.; Goh, B.T.; Horng, R.H.; et al. Heteroepitaxial Growth of an Ultrathin β-Ga2O3 Film on a Sapphire Substrate Using Mist CVD with Fluid Flow Modeling. ACS Omega 2022, 7, 41236–41245. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsomega.2c04888.
- Wakabayashi, R.; Oshima, T.; Hattori, M.; Sasaki, K.; Masui, T.; Kuramata, A.; et al. Oxygen-radical-assisted pulsed-laser deposition of β-Ga2O3 and β-(AlxGa1−x)2O3 films. J. Cryst. Growth 2015, 424, 77–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2015.05.005.
- Fan, H.-C.; Wang, C.; Ruan, Y.-J.; Shen, K.-C.; Wu, W.-Y.; Wuu, D.-S.; et al. Enhanced Responsivity of Solar Blind Ultraviolet Photodetector by PEALD Deposited Zn-Doped Ga2O3 Thin Films. IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 2024, 71, 664–669. https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2023.3336853.
- Tarntair, F.; Huang, C.; Rana, S.; Lin, K.; Hsu, S.; Kao, Y.; et al. Material Properties of n‐Type β‐Ga2O3 Epilayers with In Situ Doping Grown on Sapphire by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition. Adv. Electron. Mater. 2024, 2300679. https://doi.org/10.1002/aelm.202300679.
- Seo, D.; Baek, J.; Kim, S.; Cho, B.J.; Hwang, W.S. Sn-doped n-type amorphous gallium oxide semiconductor with energy bandgap of 4.9 eV. Mater. Sci. Semicond. Process. 2024, 169, 107922. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mssp.2023.107922.
- Han, S.-H.; Mauze, A.; Ahmadi, E.; Mates, T.; Oshima, Y.; Speck, J.S. n-type dopants in (001) β-Ga2O3 grown on (001) β-Ga2O3 substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Semicond. Sci. Technol. 2018, 33, 045001. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6641/aaae56
- Zhou, W.; Xia, C.; Sai, Q.; Zhang, H. Controlling n-type conductivity of β-Ga2O3 by Nb doping. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2017, 111, 242103. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4994263.
- Varley, J.B.; Weber, J.R.; Janotti, A.; Van de Walle, C.G. Oxygen vacancies and donor impurities in β-Ga2O3. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2010, 97, 142106. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3499306.
- Chou, T.-S.; Bin Anooz, S.; Grüneberg, R.; Irmscher, K.; Dropka, N.; Rehm, J.; et al. Toward Precise n-Type Doping Control in MOVPE-Grown β-Ga2O3 Thin Films by Deep-Learning Approach. Crystals 2021, 12, 8. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst12010008.
- Qin, Y.; Xiao, M.; Porter, M.; Ma, Y.; Spencer, J.; Du, Z.; et al. 10-kV Ga2O3 Charge-Balance Schottky Rectifier Operational at 200 °C. IEEE Electron Device Lett. 2023, 44, 1268–1271. https://doi.org/10.1109/LED.2023.3287887.
- Bae, J.; Kim, H.W.; Kang, I.H.; Yang, G.; Kim, J. High breakdown voltage quasi-two-dimensional β-Ga2O3 field-effect transistors with a boron nitride field plate. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2018, 112, 122102. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5018238.
- Goyal, P.; Kaur, H. Exploring the efficacy of implementing field plate design with air gap on β-Ga2O3 MOSFET for high power & RF applications. Micro Nanostructures 2023, 173, 207454. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micrna.2022.207454.
- Xu, S.; Liu, L.; Qu, G.; Zhang, X.; Jia, C.; Wu, S.; et al. Single β-Ga2O3 nanowire based lateral FinFET on Si. Appl. Phys. Lett. 2022, 120, 153501. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0086909.
- Shanshan, R.; Ma, J.; He, Z.; Xiaoqian, F. The effort of finding p-type β-Ga₂O₃-a review of theoretical and experimental research. In Seventh Symp. Nov. Photoelectron. Detect. Technol. Appl.; Chu, J., Yu, Q., Jiang, H., Su, J., Eds.; SPIE: Kunming, China, 2021; p. 85. https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2586313.
- Ma, C.; Wu, Z.; Jiang, Z.; Chen, Y.; Ruan, W.; Zhang, H.; et al. Exploring the feasibility and conduction mechanisms of P-type nitrogen-doped β-Ga₂O₃ with high hole mobility. J. Mater. Chem. C 2022, 10, 6673–6681. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1TC05324H.
- Liu, Y.; Wei, S.; Shan, C.; Zhao, M.; Lien, S.-Y.; Lee, M. Compositions and properties of high-conductivity nitrogen-doped p-type β-Ga₂O₃ films prepared by the thermal oxidation of GaN in N2O ambient. J. Mater. Res. Technol. 2022, 21, 3113–3128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2022.10.110.
- Wei, S.; Liu, Y.; Shi, Q.; He, T.; Shi, F.; Lee, M. Further Characterization of the Polycrystalline p-Type β-Ga₂O₃ Films Grown through the Thermal Oxidation of GaN at 1000 to 1100 °C in a N2O Atmosphere. Coatings 2023, 13, 1509. https://doi.org/10.3390/coatings13091509.
- Kaneko, K.; Fujita, S. Novel p-type oxides with corundum structure for gallium oxide electronics. J. Mater. Res. 2022, 37, 651–659. https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-021-00439-4.
- Islam, M.M.; Liedke, M.O.; Winarski, D.; Butterling, M.; Wagner, A.; Hosemann, P.; et al. Chemical manipulation of hydrogen induced high p-type and n-type conductivity in Ga₂O₃. Sci. Rep. 2020, 10, 6134. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-62948-2.
- Dakhel, A.A. Structural, optical, and opto-dielectric properties of W-doped Ga₂O₃ thin films. J. Mater. Sci. 2012, 47, 3034–3039. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-011-6134-z.
- Bai, R.; Zhao, B.; Ling, K.; Li, K.; Liu, X. Dilute-selenium alloying: A possible perspective for achieving p-type conductivity of β-gallium oxide. J. Alloys Compd. 2022, 891, 161969. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jallcom.2021.161969.
- Hwang, T.-Y.; Choi, Y.; Song, Y.; Eom, N.S.A.; Kim, S.; Cho, H.-B.; et al. A noble gas sensor platform: linear dense assemblies of single-walled carbon nanotubes (LACNTs) in a multi-layered ceramic/metal electrode system (MLES). J. Mater. Chem. C 2018, 6, 972–979. https://doi.org/10.1039/C7TC03576D.
- Zhang, C.; Li, Z.; Wang, W. Critical Thermodynamic Conditions for the Formation of p-Type β-Ga₂O₃ with Cu Doping. Materials 2021, 14, 5161. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14185161.
- Deng, Z.-Y.; Kumar, U.; Ke, C.-H.; Lin, C.-W.; Huang, W.-M.; Wu, C.-H. A simple and fast method for the fabrication of p-type β-Ga₂O₃ by electrochemical oxidation method with DFT interpretation. Nanotechnology 2023, 34, 075704. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6528/aca2b1
The articles published in this journal are licensed under the CC-BY Creative Commons Attribution International License.