Sub-band-gap absorption in Ga2O3

Peelaers, Hartwin; Van de Walle, Chris G.

doi:10.1063/1.5001323

Title: Sub-band-gap absorption in Ga₂O₃

Journal Article · Fri Nov 03 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5001323· OSTI ID:1505556

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Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

β-Ga₂O₃ is a transparent conducting oxide that, due to its large bandgap of 4.8 eV, exhibits transparency into the UV. However, the free carriers that enable the conductivity can absorb light. We study the effect of free carriers on the properties of Ga₂O₃ using hybrid density functional theory. The presence of free carriers leads to sub-band-gap absorption and a Burstein-Moss shift in the onset of absorption. We find that for a concentration of 10²⁰ carriers, the Fermi level is located 0.23 eV above the conduction-band minimum. This leads to an increase in the electron effective mass from 0.27–0.28 m_e to 0.35–0.37 me and a sub-band-gap absorption band with a peak value of 0.6 × 10³ cm^–1 at 3.37 eV for light polarized along the x or z direction. Both across-the-gap and free-carrier absorption depend strongly on the polarization of the incoming light. We also provide parametrizations of the conduction-band shape and the effective mass as a function of the Fermi level. β-Ga₂O₃ exhibits very good electronic conductivity in spite of its bandgap of 4.8 eV; this large gap makes it transparent into the UV. This combination allows for applications in devices such as deep-UV blind detectors and contacts for solar cells. It also enables high-power devices, such as high-voltage metal-semiconductor field-effect transistors and Schottky barrier diodes.

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Research Organization:: Univ. of California, Santa Barbara, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0010689

OSTI ID:: 1505556

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1408160

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 111, Issue 18; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 33 works

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Transition from electron accumulation to depletion at β-Ga ₂ O ₃ surfaces: The role of hydrogen and the charge neutrality level Swallow, J. E. N.; Varley, J. B.; Jones, L. A. H. APL Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5054091	journal	February 2019
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