Characteristics of tunable aluminum-doped Ga2O3thin films and photodetectors.

Aluminum-doped Ga2O3 (AGO) thin films were prepared by plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (PE-ALD). The growth mechanism, surface morphology, chemical composition, and optical properties of AGO films were systematically investigated. The bandgap of AGO films can be theoretically set between 4.65-6.8 eV. Based on typical AGO films, metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors (PDs) were created, and their photoelectric response was examined. The preliminary results show that PE-ALD grown AGO films have high quality and tunable bandgap, and AGO PDs possess superior characterizations to undoped films. The AGO realized using PE-ALD is expected to be an important route for the development of a new generation of gallium oxide-based photodetectors into the deep-ultraviolet.