Energy band structure and electrical properties of Ga-oxide/GaN interface formed by remote oxygen plasma

Abstract

The energy band structure of a Ga-oxide/GaN structure formed by remote oxygen plasma exposure and the electrical interface properties of the GaN metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) capacitors with the SiO2/Ga-oxide/GaN structures with postdeposition annealing (PDA) at various temperatures have been investigated. Reflection high-energy electron diffraction and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy clarified that the formed Ga-oxide layer is neither a single nor polycrystalline phase with high crystallinity. We found that the energy band offsets at the conduction band minimum and at the valence band maximum between the Ga-oxide layer and the GaN surface were 0.4 and 1.2 ± 0.2 eV, respectively. Furthermore, capacitance–voltage (C–V) characteristics revealed that the interface trap density (Dit) is lower than the evaluation limit of Terman method without depending on the PDA temperatures, and that the SiO2/Ga-oxide stack can work as a protection layer to maintain the low Dit, avoiding the significant decomposition of GaN at the high PDA temperature of 800 °C.