• Chinese Optics Letters
  • Vol. 21, Issue 4, 041605 (2023)
Baizhong Li1、2, Pengkun Li1、2, Lu Zhang1、2, Ruifeng Tian1、2, Qinglin Sai1, Mingyan Pan1, Bin Wang1, Duanyang Chen1, Youchen Liu1, Changtai Xia1, and Hongji Qi1、3、*
Author Affiliations
  • 1Key Laboratory of Materials for High Power Laser, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201800, China
  • 2Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • 3Hangzhou Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Hangzhou 311421, China
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    DOI: 10.3788/COL202321.041605 Cite this Article Set citation alerts
    Baizhong Li, Pengkun Li, Lu Zhang, Ruifeng Tian, Qinglin Sai, Mingyan Pan, Bin Wang, Duanyang Chen, Youchen Liu, Changtai Xia, Hongji Qi. Optical and electrical properties of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals grown by OFZ method[J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2023, 21(4): 041605 Copy Citation Text show less

    Abstract

    Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals were grown using the optical floating zone (OFZ) method. X-ray diffraction data and X-ray rocking curves were obtained, and the results revealed that the Sb-doped single crystals were of high quality. Raman spectra revealed that Sb substituted Ga mainly in the octahedral lattice. The carrier concentration of the Sb-doped single crystals increased from 9.55×1016 to 8.10×1018 cm-3, the electronic mobility depicted a decreasing trend from 153.1 to 108.7 cm2 ·V-1 ·s-1, and the electrical resistivity varied from 0.603 to 0.017 Ω·cm with the increasing Sb doping concentration. The un-doped and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals exhibited good light transmittance in the visible region; however, the evident decrease in the infrared region was caused by increase in the carrier concentration. The Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals had high transmittance in the UV region as well, and the cutoff edge appeared at 258 nm.

    1. Introduction

    In recent years, the β-Ga2O3 single crystal has attracted great interest in research due to its excellent optical and electrical properties[13]. Properties of the β-Ga2O3 single crystal such as its huge bandgap (4.8 eV)[4], high-breakdown electric field (8 MV/cm)[5], and short absorption edge[6] make them appropriate materials for deep ultraviolet (UV) electronic devices and high power, high voltage, and low loss power devices[713]. In particular, β-Ga2O3 single crystals can be obtained by the melt method, which includes the edge-defined film-fed growth[14], optical floating zone (OFZ)[15], Czochralski[16], and vertical Bridgman[17] methods. Therefore, larger-size β-Ga2O3 single crystals can be obtained at a smaller cost than that of SiC and GaN crystals, which is beneficial for its large-scale applications.

    β-Ga2O3 has a monoclinic structure with C2/m space group, and its structure is composed of deformed [GaO4] tetrahedrons and [GaO6] octahedrons[18]. The [GaO4] tetrahedrons and [GaO6] octahedrons form a carrier chain, and the carriers can move freely[19]. Therefore, its crystal cell contains two different Ga3+ sites: tetrahedral and octahedral. Electrical conductivity is the most important property to affect the devices applications of β-Ga2O3 single crystals; however, the conductivity of the intrinsic β-Ga2O3 crystal is insufficient to achieve the requirements of device applications[20]. Hence, it is urgent to search suitable doping elements for β-Ga2O3 single crystals to obtain adjustable conductivity. P-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals are difficult to fabricate and several researches have revealed the electrical properties of n-doped β-Ga2O3. For instance, group IV elements (Sn, Si, and Ge) served as suitable n-type dopants for β-Ga2O3 single crystals, and the carrier concentration in β-Ga2O3 can range from 2.5×1016 to 1019cm3[2124]. Our group has also reported that group V elements (Nb and Ta) served as suitable n-type dopants for β-Ga2O3 crystals, and the carrier concentration in the crystals reached as high as 3.0×1019cm3[5,15]. Many literatures have reported that doped β-Ga2O3 epitaxial layers also have a good effect on improving the conductivity. Fikadu et al. presented that Ge-doped β-Ga2O3 epitaxial film was prepared by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method, and the carrier concentration can range from 2×1016 to 3×1020cm3[25]. Akhil et al. reported that Sn-doped β-Ga2O3 epitaxial film was prepared by the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) method, and the carrier concentration can range from 7×1016 to 2×1019cm3[26].

    It has been reported that the element Sb is often used as an effective dopant to improve the conductivity of semiconductor crystals[27,28]. The Sb5+ ion not only has a similar radius (Sb5+ radius is 0.60 Å, and the six-coordination radius of Ga3+ is 0.62 Å), but also has more valence electrons than Ga3+[29]. Thus, Sb5+ ions can substitute Ga3+ ions without causing new large-scale structural defects and supply extra electrons on the β-Ga2O3 lattice. These are the huge advantages of Sb5+ as a dopant. Hence, doping β-Ga2O3 with Sb5+ can improve the former’s electrical conductivity. Therefore, Sb can be considered excellent effective dopant β-Ga2O3 crystals to improve the conductivity. There has been no research of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 before. In this Letter, β-Ga2O3 single crystals doped with different Sb concentrations were grown by the OFZ method. The optical and electrical properties of the Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 were investigated. Our findings can provide new potential material for electronic devices based on β-Ga2O3 single crystals.

    2. Experimental Procedure

    Un-doped and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals were grown by the OFZ method using a Quantum Design IRF01-001-00 infrared (IR) image furnace (Made in Japan). High-purity powders of Ga2O3 (6N) and Sb2O5 (4N) were used as the raw materials. The raw materials were weighed precisely and mixed adequately, after which the mixture was pressed into rods. Then, the rods were sintered thoroughly at 1400°C for 10 h, and the 010 oriented β-Ga2O3 single crystals were employed as the seeds. Dry air at atmospheric pressure was used as the growth atmosphere, and the pull-down rate was 6 mm/h. The grown crystals were cut into the size of 6mm×8mm×1mm and the 6 mm × 8 mm plane was parallel to the (100) plane, and both faces were polished into 0.5 mm thick wafers to prepare for testing optical and electrical properties.

    The crystal structures were determined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) with a Rigaku D/max 2550. The X-ray rocking curve of the Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 was obtained via a Bruker D8 Discover X-ray diffractometer. The actual concentrations of Sb in the Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals were characterized using a PerkinElmer Plasma-400 inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES). The Raman spectra of the Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals were obtained with a 633 nm laser beam as the excitation source (Horiba iHR550). The electrical properties were characterized at room temperature using the van der Pauw method. The room temperature transmittance spectra of the crystals were obtained by a Lambda 1050+ UV/visible (vis)/near-IR (NIR) spectrometer (PerkinElmer).

    3. Results and Discussion

    Figure 1 shows the photos of the as grown Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals. The single crystals are 40–50 mm in length and approximately 6 mm in diameter. The as grown β-Ga2O3 crystal doped with 0.1% (molar fraction) Sb showed a light blue color, which deepened with the increase of Sb concentration; the crystal doped with 2.0% Sb showed a dark blue color. It has been reported that the phenomenon of darkening of the color is due to infrared absorption by free carriers[30].

    Photos of the as grown Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals. (a) 0.1% Sb; (b) 1.0% Sb; (c) 2.0% Sb.

    Figure 1.Photos of the as grown Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals. (a) 0.1% Sb; (b) 1.0% Sb; (c) 2.0% Sb.

    Figure 2 shows the XRD patterns of the database (JCPDF: 41-1103) and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals. Compared with the measured diffraction peaks of JCPDF (41-1103), the pattern showed a perfect match without any other diffraction peaks, indicating that the crystal structure did not change after Sb-doping and that the Sb-doped single crystals still belonged to the C2/m space group. The intensity of several XRD peaks was not coincident with the PDF (41-1103), which is due to the residual microcrystals changing the intensity after the crystals were ground into powder. Figure 3 shows the X-ray rocking curve for the (400) plane of 1.0% Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystal. The full width at half-maximum (FWHM) value was 101 arcsec, which meant that Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals grown by the OFZ method were of good quality.

    XRD patterns of the database (PDF: 41-1103) and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals.

    Figure 2.XRD patterns of the database (PDF: 41-1103) and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals.

    X-ray rocking curve for the (400) plane of 1.0% Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystal.

    Figure 3.X-ray rocking curve for the (400) plane of 1.0% Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystal.

    The actual concentration of Sb in the Sb-doped crystals and in the polycrystalline rods, tested using ICP-AES, is listed in Table 1. Evidently, the concentration of Sb in the crystals and in the polycrystalline rods was much lower than that in the raw materials. Sb2O5 has a low melting point, and it evaporates easily at high temperature. So, most of Sb has been volatilized during the preparation of polycrystalline rods by high-temperature sintering. The effective segregation coefficient for the three samples was about 0.71–0.77. This is due to the impurity segregation throughout the growth process.

     Sample 1Sample 2Sample 3
    Nominal composition Sb (%)0.11.02.0
    Rod [ICP-AES (%)]0.01420.02060.0309
    Crystal [ICP-AES (%)]0.01010.01570.0237
    Effective segregation coefficient0.710.760.77

    Table 1. ICP-AES Data of Sb-Doped β-Ga2O3 Crystals with Different Sb Doping Concentrations

    Room temperature Raman spectra of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals between 100 and 1000cm1 are shown in Fig. 4. According to the previous reports[19,31], the Raman active modes of β-Ga2O3 could be divided into three parts: (I), (II), and (III). (I) is attributed to the vibration and translation of the tetrahedrons–octahedrons chains and appears below 300cm1; (II) is associated with the deformation of [GaO6] octahedrons and appears between 300 and 600 cm−1; (III) is due to the stretching and bending of [GaO4] tetrahedrons and appears above 600cm1. Eleven main Raman peaks of Sb-doped crystals were observed. Ag(1):114cm1, Bg(2):144cm1, Ag(2):169cm1, Ag(3):200cm1, Ag(4):317cm1, Ag(5):344cm1, Ag(6):416cm1, Ag(7):472cm1, Ag(8):629cm1, Ag(9):654cm1, and Ag(10):767cm1 were observed, respectively. As shown in Fig. 5, the intensity of part (II) peaks decreases with the increasing of Sb concentration. Based on the analysis of Raman spectra and ion radius, it indicates that Sb5+ substitutes Ga3+ mainly at the octahedral sites.

    Room temperature Raman spectra of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals.

    Figure 4.Room temperature Raman spectra of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals.

    Room temperature Raman spectra of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals in the 300–460 cm−1 wavenumber range.

    Figure 5.Room temperature Raman spectra of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals in the 300–460 cm−1 wavenumber range.

    Room temperature electrical properties of the un-doped and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals are listed in Table 2. Ohmic contacts were obtained by sputtering 10 nm Ti/90 nm Al layer on the four corner surfaces of the wafers. All crystals revealed n-type conduction, and the carrier concentration of the un-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystal was 9.55×1016cm3 due to the raw materials impurities, which was similar to the previous report[5]. The carrier concentration in the crystal was found to increase with Sb concentration by approximately two orders of magnitude, from 9.55×1016cm3 to 8.10×1018cm3. The carrier concentration of 0.1% Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 and 1% Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals is smaller than the Sb concentration in the crystals, while the carrier concentration (8.10×1018cm3) of 2% Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 is close to the Sb concentration in the crystal (0.0237% is equivalent to 8.96×1018cm3). As a double electron donor, the activation efficiency of Sb5+ is much lower than 200%, even in 2% Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals. The electronic mobility decreased with Sb concentration, from 153.1 to 108.7cm2·V1·s1. The value of the electrical resistivity in the β-Ga2O3 crystals changed from 0.603 to 0.017Ω·cm. Based on the above results, Sb can be considered a suitable n-type dopant for β-Ga2O3 crystals to improve its conductivity.

    SamplesCarrier TypeCarrier Concentration (cm−3)Mobility (cm2 · V−1 · s−1)Resistivity (Ω · cm)
    β-Ga2O3n9.55×1016153.10.603
    β-Ga2O3:Sb (0.1%)n5.40×1017134.70.064
    β-Ga2O3:Sb (1%)n1.54×1018126.40.037
    β-Ga2O3:Sb (2%)n8.10×1018108.70.017

    Table 2. Room-Temperature Hall Data of the Un-Doped and Sb-Doped β-Ga2O3 Crystals

    Figure 6 shows the room temperature optical transmittance spectra of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals with different Sb concentrations. Figure 6(a) shows that the transmittance of the crystals in the range of visible wavelength is between 70% and 80%, which indicates that the Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals exhibit good light transmittance in the visible region. The obvious decrease in transmittance of the Sb-doped crystals in the IR region was caused by the increase in carrier concentration. According to the previous report[19], IR absorption is associated with plasma frequency, which is determined by conductive electrons. Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 had good transmittance in the UV region as well, and the cutoff absorption edge appeared at 258 nm, as shown in Fig. 6(b). The transmission spectra in the UV range had a shoulder from 268 nm to 275 nm as a result of the transition from the valence band perturbed by Ga3+ vacancies to the conduction band[32]. The shoulder tended to become smooth with the increase of Sb concentration, which indicated that Sb5+ ions substituted Ga3+ vacancies, the reduction of which reduced the disturbance.

    Optical transmittance of un-doped and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals. (a) 200–2000 nm (including their carrier concentrations), (b) 250–300 nm.

    Figure 6.Optical transmittance of un-doped and Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals. (a) 200–2000 nm (including their carrier concentrations), (b) 250–300 nm.

    4. Conclusion

    In summary, Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 single crystals were successfully obtained for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, by the OFZ method. XRD showed that the crystal structure did not change after doping, and the Sb-doped single crystals still belonged to the C2/m space group. Room temperature Raman spectra revealed that Sb5+ substituted Ga3+ ions mainly in the octahedral site. The carrier concentration of the Sb-doped single crystals increased from 9.55×1016 to 8.10×1018cm3; the electronic mobility decreased from 153.1 to 108.7cm2·V1·s1, and the electrical resistivity varied from 0.603 to 0.017Ω·cm with the increasing Sb doping concentration. Sb5+ can be considered as a suitable n-type dopant for doping to improve the conductivity of the β-Ga2O3 crystals. The transmittance diminished in the NIR range with the increase in Sb concentration, which could be attributed to the increase in the carrier concentration. Our study can promote further research in the field of devices based on β-Ga2O3 crystals.

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    Baizhong Li, Pengkun Li, Lu Zhang, Ruifeng Tian, Qinglin Sai, Mingyan Pan, Bin Wang, Duanyang Chen, Youchen Liu, Changtai Xia, Hongji Qi. Optical and electrical properties of Sb-doped β-Ga2O3 crystals grown by OFZ method[J]. Chinese Optics Letters, 2023, 21(4): 041605
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