Analysis of the single-event effects in β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes

This work presents the investigation of the single-event effects in β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) under heavy-ion irradiation with a reverse bias voltage of 100 V. The research focuses on the performance degradation and underlying mechanisms of β-Ga2O3 SBDs under Kr ion irradiation (LET = 37.9 MeV·mg−1·cm2). A detailed analysis of the reasons for the changes in device properties before and after irradiation was conducted. After irradiation, the forward turn-on voltage (Von) of the β-Ga2O3 SBDs remains stable at approximately 0.78 V, the ideality factor (n) increases from 1.59 to 1.68, and the Schottky barrier height (Φb) decreases from 0.83 to 0.80 eV. The forward characteristics of the β-Ga2O3 SBDs exhibit minimal change, while the reverse leakage current rises significantly. Deep-level transient spectroscopy analysis reveals a marked increase in trap concentration at EC-0.50–0.53 eV and EC-0.65–0.693 eV. Moreover, after irradiation, a new energy level trap at EC-0.724 eV emerges with a concentration of 1.42 × 1015 cm−3, most likely associated with VGa and OGa. Energy band diagram studies further indicate that the increase in reverse leakage is correlated with the elevated trap density. In addition, the annealing experiments were performed to investigate the annealing behavior of Ga2O3 SBD. These results reveal the effects of heavy-ion irradiation on the performance of β-Ga2O3 SBDs and provide a theoretical basis for their subsequent application in harsh radiation environments.