Hydrogen-included plasma-assisted reactive sputtering for conductivity control of ultra-wide bandgap amorphous gallium oxide

Abstract

Conductivity control of a-Ga2Ox films by cation/anion off-stoichiometry such as oxygen vacancy formation and hydrogen doping have been achieved by hydrogen-included plasma-assisted reactive sputter deposition system and physical and electrical properties of a-Ga2Ox films formed by this system have been investigated. The change in resistivity of a-Ga2Ox thin films deposited by the hydrogen-included plasma-assisted reactive sputtering was then investigated by changing the H2 flow rate ratio H2/(Ar + H2). The a-Ga2Ox thin films with semiconducting properties with a resistivity as low as 102 Ωcm was demonstrated using the plasma-assisted reactive sputtering system with addition to H2. Along with the low resistivity, the a-GaOx thin films with high film density and band gap energy of 5.2 g cm−3 and 4.8 eV were realized. The electrical resistivity of the a-Ga2Ox thin films can be controlled from 102 Ωcm to 105 Ωcm by appropriately controlling the amount of hydrogen introduced from the plasma. The results indicate that the hydrogen acts as a shallow donor, which increases the carrier concentration, can be efficiently introduced by using the plasma-assisted reactive sputtering system with addition to H2.