Electrical and optical properties of degenerate and semi-insulating ZnGa2O4: Electron/phonon scattering elucidated by quantum magnetoconductivity

Abstract

We study the electrical and optical properties of degenerate ZnGa2O4 films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire and semi-insulating films grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on fused silica. After a forming-gas anneal at 700 °C, the MOCVD film is highly conducting, with a room-temperature carrier concentration of 2 × 1020 cm−3, a mobility of 20 cm2/V s, and direct bandgap absorptions at 3.65 eV and 4.60 eV. Under the same annealing conditions, the PLD film is semi-insulating, with a direct bandgap absorption at 5.25 eV. The phonon structure, important for electrical and thermal conduction as well as superconductivity and other quantum phenomena, is very complicated due to the large number of atoms (and, thus, phonon branches) in the unit cell. However, we show that the phonon contributions to electron mobility (μph) can be directly measured by quantum-based magnetoconductivity over the temperature span T = 10–200 K. From an approximate analytical formula, μph = function (Tph, T), we calculate an effective phonon energy kTph(T) that takes account of all phonon contributions at temperature T. For T = 10–200 K, the value of kTph ranges from about 10 to 90 meV, consistent with the energy range of the ZnGa2O4 phonon density of states (at 0 K) calculated by density functional theory. The total measured mobility can then be modeled by μtot−1 = μii−1 + μph−1, where μii is the mobility due to ionized-impurity scattering. With a high bandgap, controllable conductivity, high breakdown voltage, and bulk-growth capability, ZnGa2O4 offers opportunities for high-power electronics and UV detectors.