【Epitaxy Papers】Effects of non-equilibrium Sn diffusion into β-Ga₂O₃ films

      Researchers from the Xi’an University of Posts & Telecommunications have published a dissertation titled "Effects of non-equilibrium Sn diffusion into β-Ga₂O₃ films" in Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics.

Abstract

      β-Ga₂O₃ is a potential super wide bandgap semiconductor material. The N-type conductive behavior of β-Ga₂O₃ may be greatly improved by doping Sn cation or other tetravalent cations. However, the diffusion of Sn cations into β-Ga₂O₃ under non-equilibrium environment is not clear yet, which may limit the application of β-Ga₂O₃. In this study, an electron beam evaporation method coupled with post-annealing processing was employed to successfully prepare Sn-doped β-Ga₂O₃ thin films with different Sn ratios from 3 to 12 at%. The effects of Sn on the structural, electrical, and light emission properties of the films were investigated. Especially, with the addition of 10-at% Sn in the film, the film morphology turns to be uniform, and the film’s electrical properties surpassed the other samples with its resistivity of 503 Ω·cm, the carrier content of 1.3 × 10¹⁵ cm⁻³, and the carrier mobility of 9.654 cm²V⁻¹ s⁻¹. The light emission property was greatly degraded due to the absorption of incidence light by more free carriers. The corresponding electrical compensation mechanism was discussed.

DOI：

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-025-15042-0