Mitigating Heavy Ion Irradiation‐Induced Degradation in p‐type SnO Thin‐Film Transistors at Room Temperature

Journal Article · 07 September 2023 · Physica Status Solidi. A, Applications and Materials Science

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.202300392 · OSTI ID:1998978

Al-Mamun, Nahid Sultan ^[1]; Rasel, Md Abu Jafar ^[1]; Wolfe, Douglas E. ^[2]; Haque, Aman  ^[1]; Schoell, Ryan ^[3]; Hattar, Khalid ^[4]; Ryu, Seung Ho ^[5]; Kim, Seong Keun ^[5]

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1. Department of Mechanical Engineering Penn State University University Park PA 16802 USA
2. Department of Materials Science &, Engineering Penn State University University Park PA 16802 USA
3. Center for Integrated Nanotechnology Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque NM 87185 USA
4. Center for Integrated Nanotechnology Sandia National Laboratories Albuquerque NM 87185 USA, Department of Nuclear Engineering University of Tennessee Knoxville TN 37996 USA
5. Electronic Materials Research Center Korea Institute of Science and Technology Seoul 02791 South Korea, KU-KIST Graduate School of Converging Science and Technology Korea University Seoul 02841 South Korea

The study investigates the mitigation of radiation damage on p‐type SnO thin‐film transistors (TFTs) with a fast, room‐temperature annealing process. Atomic layer deposition is utilized to fabricate bottom‐gate TFTs of high‐quality p‐type SnO layers. After 2.8 MeV Au ⁴⁺ irradiation at a fluence level of 5.2 × 10 ¹²  ions cm ⁻² , the output drain current and on/off current ratio ( I _on / I _off ) decrease by more than one order of magnitude, field‐effect mobility ( μ _FE ) reduces more than four times, and subthreshold swing (SS) increases more than four times along with a negative shift in threshold voltage. The observed degradation is attributed to increased surface roughness and defect density, as confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high‐resolution micro‐Raman, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) with geometric phase analysis (GPA). A technique is demonstrated to recover the device performance at room temperature and in less than a minute, using the electron wind force (EWF) obtained from low‐duty‐cycle high‐density pulsed current. At a pulsed current density of 4.0 × 10 ⁵  A cm ⁻² , approximately four times increase in I _on / I _off is observed, 41% increase in μ _FE , and 20% decrease in the SS of the irradiated TFTs, suggesting effectiveness of the new annealing technique.

• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• OSTI ID: 1998978
• Alternate ID(s): OSTI ID: 2008004
• Journal Information: Physica Status Solidi. A, Applications and Materials Science, Journal Name: Physica Status Solidi. A, Applications and Materials Science Vol. 220 Journal Issue: 19; ISSN 1862-6300
• Publisher: Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)Copyright Statement
• Country of Publication: Germany
• Language: English