High‐Performance Harsh‐Environment‐Resistant GaOX Solar‐Blind Photodetectors via Defect and Doping Engineering

• Published in: Advanced materials (Weinheim) Vol. 34; no. 1; pp. e2106923 - n/a
• Main Authors: Hou, Xiaohu, Zhao, Xiaolong, Zhang, Ying, Zhang, Zhongfang, Liu, Yan, Qin, Yuan, Tan, Pengju, Chen, Chen, Yu, Shunjie, Ding, Mengfan, Xu, Guangwei, Hu, Qin, Long, Shibing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2022
• Subjects: Amorphous materials; Control equipment; Dark current; Decay rate; defect engineering; Doping; doping engineering; Energy gap; Engineering; gallium oxide; Gallium oxides; High temperature; Hypoxia; Materials science; Photometers; Recrystallization; solar‐blind photodetectors; Space exploration
• ISSN: 0935-9648; 1521-4095
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202106923

Gallium oxide (Ga2O3), with an ultrawide bandgap, is currently regarded as one of the most promising materials for solar‐blind photodetectors (SBPDs), which are greatly demanded in harsh environment, such as space exploration and flame prewarning. However, realization of high‐performance SBPDs with high tolerance toward harsh environments based on low‐cost Ga2O3 material faces great challenges. Here, defect and doping (DD) engineering towards amorphous GaOX (a‐GaOX) has been proposed to obtain ultrasensitive SBPDs for harsh condition application. Serious oxygen deficiency and doping compensation of the engineered a‐GaOX film ensure the high response currents and low dark currents, respectively. Annealing item in nitrogen of DD engineering also incurs the recrystallization of material, formation of nanopores by oxygen escape, and suppression of sub‐bandgap defect states. As a result, the tailored GaOX SBPD based on DD engineering not only harvests a record‐high responsivity rejection ratio (R254 nm/R365 nm) of 1.8 × 107, 102 times higher detectivity, and 2 × 102 times faster decay speed than the control device, but also keeps a high responsivity, high photo‐to‐dark current ratio, and sharp imaging capability even at high temperature (280 °C) or high bias (100 V). The proposed DD engineering provides an effective strategy towards highly harsh‐environment‐resistant GaOX SBPDs. Certain application situations of solar‐blind photodetectors (SBPDs) inevitably face harsh conditions (e.g., high temperature/electronic‐field/radiation). Gallium oxide with an ultrawide bandgap is regarded as one of the most promising materials for SBPDs. Defect and doping engineering, including Ga‐rich design and doping compensation, has been demonstrated as an effective strategy for low‐cost amorphous GaOX to force a way towards harsh‐condition‐resistant SBPDs.