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In this work, the influence of the Fe and Fe/C co-doped buffer on the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs is systematically investigated and compared. Due to the pronounced Fe tail in the unintentionally doped layer of the Fe-doped buffer compared to the Fe/C co-doped buffer, and the utilization of a two-step C doping process in the Fe/C co-doped buffer, it results in effectively reducing leakage current and increasing breakdown voltage without sacrificing saturation current and peak transconductance. Meanwhile, the RF characteristics of the Fe/C co-doped buffer are also superior to the Fe-doped buffer. More importantly, Drain Transient Current measurements indicate that the current collapse in the Fe/C co-doped buffer is smaller than that in the Fe-doped buffer. Through simulation analysis, the reason was identified: In the near-channel region, the weaker Fe tail effect in Fe/C co-doped buffer leads to a lower acceptor trap ionization. When the concentration of C exceeds 1 × 1016 cm−3, the ionization of traps introduced by Fe is suppressed. Additionally, the two-step C impurity distribution in the Fe/C co-doped buffer design modulates the electric field and potential, reducing the effective range of the electric field and potential, thereby effectively reducing the trap effects. These results are highly meaningful for the design of high-power amplifier epitaxial structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spintronic devices are regarded as prime candidates for addressing the demands of emergent applications such as in-memory computing and the Internet of Things, characterized by requirements for high speed, low energy consumption, and elevated storage density. Among these, spin valves, serving as fundamental structures of magnetic random-access memory, have garnered substantial attention in recent years. This study introduces an all van der Waals (vdW) heterostructure composed of Fe3GeTe2 (FGT)/tellurene/FGT, wherein a thin layer of Weyl semiconductor Te is interposed between two ferromagnetic FGT layers. The proposed configuration exhibits a characteristic spin valve effect at temperatures below 160 K. This effect is attributed to spin-dependent transport and spin-dependent scattering phenomena occurring at the interfaces of the constituent materials. Furthermore, as temperature decreases, the magnetoresistance ratio (MR) of the device increases, indicative of the heightened polarization ratio of FGT, with an MR of 0.43% achievable as the temperature approaches 5 K. This investigation elucidates the underlying operational mechanisms of two-dimensional spin valve devices and lays the groundwork for the realization of spin-based integrated circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is a collection of research papers on wide- and ultrawide-bandgap electronic semiconductor devices. It focuses on the progress and challenges in developing devices made from wide-bandgap materials like GaN, AlGaN, AlN, Ga2O3, BN, and diamond for power, rf, and photonic applications. The papers cover topics such as improving GaN power devices, exploring new wide bandgap materials, and investigating gate insulator properties. Additionally, there are papers on defect detection, new concepts for wide bandgap devices, and the growth and properties of different materials. The research provides valuable insights for researchers interested in using these materials in electronic devices. [Extracted from the article]

In this Letter, an enhancement mode (E-mode) β-Ga2O3 metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) with quasi-two-dimensional channel was reported, and the channel mobility of 147.5 cm2/(V·s) is achieved. Low damage etching technology and low Ohmic contact resistance technology are introduced. As a result, the E-mode transistor demonstrates a maximum drain to source current (ID) of 230.5 mA/mm, a peak transconductance (Gm) of 54.2 mS/mm, a current gain cut-off frequency (fT) of 18 GHz, and a power gain cut-off frequency (fMAX) of 42 GHz. Additionally, a positive threshold voltage (VT) of 1.65 V, a breakdown voltage (VBK) of 420 V, and a specific on-resistance (RON,SP) of 1.24 mΩ·cm2 are achieved. Moreover, a fMAX × VBK of 17.64 THz·V and a fT × VBK of 7.56 THz·V are found to be a close value so far to the theoretical limit of β-Ga2O3. This device leads to excellent radio frequency (RF) characteristics, which paved the way for future millimeter-wave RF power electronics applications with β-Ga2O3 MOSFET. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degradation and trap evolution in NiO/β-Ga2O3 heterojunction pn diodes under on-state electrical stress were investigated in this work using deep-level transient spectroscopy measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The decrease in turn-on voltage and forward current appears to correlate with an increase in the concentration of the compensating acceptor-like traps. From the energy level of EV + 1.3 eV, the corresponding acceptor-like traps can be attributed to the Ga vacancy complex with hydrogen (VGa-H). Interestingly, accompanied by the increase in VGa-H concentration, the self-trapped holes (STH) originally passivated by H may gradually recover. DFT calculations show a monotonous decrease in energy, suggesting the spontaneous diffusion of hydrogen from STH passivated sites to the adjacent VGa, which are generated under stress. This phenomenon leads to the recovery of STH and the generation of VGa-H. This investigation offers new insights into the degradation mechanisms of β-Ga2O3-based devices under electrical stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we propose combining a low work function anode metal and junction barrier Schottky structure to simultaneously achieve low turn-on voltage (Von) and high breakdown voltage (BV), which alleviates the dilemma that high BV requires high Schottky barrier height (SBH) and high Von. Molybdenum (Mo) is used to serve as the anode metal to reduce the SBH and facilitate fast turn-on to achieve a low Von. To resolve the low SBH related low BV issue, a p-NiO/n-Ga2O3-based heterojunction structure is used to enhance β-Ga2O3 sidewall depletion during the reverse state to improve the BV. With such a design, a low Von = 0.64 V(@1A/cm2) and a high BV = 2.34 kV as well as a specific on-resistance (Ron,sp) of 5.3 mΩ cm2 are demonstrated on a 10 μm-drift layer with a doping concentration of 1.5 × 1016 cm−3. β-Ga2O3 JBS diodes with low Von = 0.64 V and a power figure of merit of 1.03 GW/cm2 show great potential for future high-voltage and high-efficiency power electronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the single-event burnout (SEB) mechanism of p-GaN gate AlGaN/GaN HEMTs has been studied systematically. The irradiation experiment was carried out based on Ta ions with high linear energy transfer of 75.4 MeV/(mg/cm2), a standard criterion for commercial space applications. It is clearly observed that both the drain current and gate current increase during the irradiation. With the increasing drain bias, the device burns out eventually. Technology computer-aided design simulation was used to explore the possible burnout mechanism. The local high electric field peak induced by the electron and hole redistribution was proposed to explain the permanent damage. When heavy ions impact the device, electron–hole pairs are formed. With the aid of a horizontal electric field across the channel, electrons and holes move toward the drain and gate, respectively. The accumulation of electrons and holes around the drain edge and gate edge induces the local high electric field, which is even higher than the intrinsic breakdown electric field of GaN and AlGaN. The scanning electron microscope results verified the proposed SEB mechanism. This research offers significant theoretical and experimental insights for evaluating the reliability of GaN power devices against high-energy single-event burnout in aerospace applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we report on the high-performance p-GaN/InGaN/AlN multi-heterostructure p-channel metal–semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs) with energy-band modulated quantum well-like InGaN channel and low work function metal tungsten (W) as the gate material. A negative threshold voltage (VTH) of −0.35 V is achieved by precisely controlling the self-aligned etching depth at the active region. Benefiting from the enhanced hole confinement, the ION/IOFF ratio and subthreshold swing of the fabricated-channel MESFET are extracted to be 1.2 × 107 and 66 mV/dec, respectively, at room temperature. The idealized Schottky interface with TMAH and post-gate-annealing treatment shows an ultra-low voltage hysteresis of 0.08 V extracted at subthreshold area in the dual-sweep transfer curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, the resistive memory devices with Ag/TiOxNy/Pt structure and Ag/TiOxNy/Ga2O3/Pt structure are fabricated. The results showed that they exhibit typical resistive behaviors as well as excellent cycling and retention characteristics (>104 s). Especially, the double-layer device with Ga2O3 layer exhibits superior resistive behavior, which has a larger storage window (ON/OFF ratio >105), a smaller set voltage (0.17 V) and a reset voltage (−0.057 V), and lower power consumption (21.7, 0.17 μW) compared with the single-layer device. Furthermore, the Ag/TiOxNy/Ga2O3/Pt device demonstrates ultraviolet light (UV-365 nm)-dependent resistance state (RS), which is advantageous for multilevel memory cells. As the intensity of UV light increases, eight high resistance state (HRS) levels are produced. Finally, the conductive mechanism for both device structures is discussed, and it is found that the conductive filaments mechanism dominates in the low resistance state. However, for the HRS, the single-layer TiOxNy device is dominated by the space charge-limited conduction mechanism, and the double-layer TiOxNy/Ga2O3 device is dominated by the Schottky emission mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synergistic impact of reverse bias stress and 3 MeV proton irradiation on the β-Ga2O3 p–n diode has been studied from the perspective of the defect in this work. The forward current density (JF) is significantly decreased with the increase in proton irradiation fluence. According to the deep-level transient spectroscopy results, the increase in the acceptor-like trap with an energy level of EC-0.75 eV within the β-Ga2O3 drift layer, which is most likely to be Ga vacancy-related defects, can be the key origin of the device degradation. The increase in these acceptor-like traps results in the carrier concentration reduction, which in turn leads to a decrease in JF. Furthermore, compared with the case of proton irradiation with no bias, the introduction of −100 V electrical stress induced a nearly double decrease in JF. Based on the capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurement, with the support of the electric field, the carrier removal rate increased from 335 to 600 cm−1. Similar to the above-mentioned phenomenon, the trap concentration also increased significantly. We propose a hypothesis elucidating the synergistic effect of electrical stress and proton irradiation through the behavior of recoil nuclei under the electric field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Letter, a single-event burnout (SEB) mechanism in gallium nitride (GaN) microwave monolithic integrated circuit power amplifiers with a high linear energy transfer of 78.1 MeV·cm2/mg has been investigated in detail. A typical SEB phenomenon was observed. With the aid of photon emission measurements and scanning electron microscopy, it is found that catastrophic burnout occurs in the power-stage GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and the metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitors, respectively. For the GaN HEMT, the incident heavy ions will generate electron–hole pairs within it, which can gain enough energy with the transverse high electric field. The high-energy electrons will collide with the lattice near the drain electrode and induce significant electron trapping, which will result in a significant longitudinal local electric field. When a critical electric field is achieved, catastrophic burnout occurs. For the MIM capacitor, the burnout is attributed to the single-event dielectric rupture via severe impact ionization or latent tracks when heavy ions strike it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work demonstrates high-performance AlN/GaN double-barrier resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) with high peak current density grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on c-plane free-standing GaN substrates, featuring stable and repeatable negative differential resistance (NDR) characteristics at room temperature. By scaling down the barrier thickness of AlN barrier and the lateral mesa size of collector, the record peak current density of 1551 kA/cm2 is achieved along with a peak-to-valley current ratio (PVCR) of 1.24, which is attributed to the reduced resonant tunneling time under thinner AlN barrier and the suppressed external incoherent valley current by reducing the dislocation number contained in the RTD device with the smaller size of collector. By statistically analyzing the NDR performance of RTD devices with different thicknesses of AlN barrier, the average peak current density increases from 145.7 to 1215.1 kA/cm2, while the average PVCR decreases from 1.45 to 1.1, correspondingly, accompanying with a decreased peak voltage from 6.89 to 5.49 V, with downscaling the AlN barrier thickness from 1.5 to 1.25 nm. The peak current density obtained in this work is the highest value among all the reported nitride-based RTDs up until now while maintaining high PVCR value simultaneously, which illustrates that ultra-scaled RTD based on vertical quantum-well structure and lateral collector size is a valuable approach for the development of nitride-based RTDs with excellent NDR characteristics and reveals their great potential applications in high-frequency oscillation sources and high-speed switch circuits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article innovatively uses pulsed metal-organic chemical vapor deposition technology to optimize the quality of β-Ga2O3 thin films on (−201) β-Ga2O3 homo-substrate using indium pulse-assisted technology. The results demonstrate that the pulsed indium-assisted method, when compared with the traditional indium-assisted method, effectively suppresses the desorption of Ga2O, enhances the flatness of the β-Ga2O3 film, and reduces the surface roughness from 34.8 to 0.98 nm. The optimized single crystalline β-Ga2O3 film was grown with pulsed-indium, and the full width at half maximum of x-ray diffraction rocking curve was 30.42 arc sec, smaller than that of the continuous indium β-Ga2O3 (56.1 arc sec). In combination with the x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy O1s split-peak fitting analysis, the relative content of oxygen vacancies in the film was significantly reduced by pulsed indium-assisted method. The Hall mobility of films assisted by pulsed-indium is approximately 14 times higher than that of films assisted by traditional indium. The pulsed indium technology provides an idea for homoepitaxial growth of high-quality β-Ga2O3 films. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the radiation effect of gamma irradiation (60Co) on the Au/Ni/β-Ga2O3 vertical Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs) was investigated for total doses of about 1 Mrad (Si). The SBDs were characterized by current density–voltage (J–V) and capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements. Compared with original β-Ga2O3 SBDs, it was found that Schottky barrier height Φb increases from 1.08 to 1.12 eV, the ideality factor n decreases from 1.07 to 1.02, and the specific on-resistance Ron,sp decreases from 3.34 to 2.95 mΩ·cm2 for the irradiated β-Ga2O3 SBDs. In addition, the carrier concentration calculated from the C–V measurements increases slightly after gamma irradiation. The temperature-dependent current–voltage characteristics and conductance-frequency measurements indicate that the Schottky contact interface of β-Ga2O3 SBDs had been slightly improved after irradiation. These results suggest that β-Ga2O3 SBDs have high intrinsic gamma irradiation hardness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we demonstrated the enhancement mode (E-mode) β-Ga2O3 metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) by introducing a hybrid floating gate (HFG) structure. This E-mode Ga2O3 MOSFET featured the highest VTH of 9.03 V and the highest maximum current ID of 70.0 mA/mm among the reported lateral normally off β-Ga2O3 MOSFETs. Meanwhile, a breakdown voltage of 834 V, a specific on-resistance RON,sp of 19.3 mΩ·cm2, and a sub-threshold swing SS of 87 mV/dec were achieved simultaneously. In addition, VTH shifted by only 9.9% after applying a gate stress of 25 V for 105 s. These findings provide a promising path for the development of enhancement-mode Ga2O3 power devices by incorporating a charge-storage structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging intelligence applications, such as brain-inspired and in-memory computing, require memory with faster read/write speeds, higher integration, and lower energy consumption. To tackle these challenges, memristors, a type of synaptic device, are considered ideal candidates due to their potential for emulating biological synaptic connections. In this study, a two-dimensional (2D) heterostructure of tellurene/Nb-doped MoS2 (MoS2:Nb) was used as the resistive switching layer to fabricate memristors. By varying the maximum working voltage, the fabricated device can switch between one and two-memory windows, which can be used to imitate the postsynaptic inhibition effect. This is attributed to the competition between the drift and diffusion of the S vacancy in the MoS2:Nb layer, which can modulate the contact Schottky barrier in the material interfaces. Furthermore, biological synapse effects, such as long-term depression and long-term potentiation, can be well mimicked by applying several voltage pulses to the device with good repeatability. This study advances the device physics for understanding the physical working mechanism of the 2D memristor, which can benefit the realization of bio-realistic neuromorphic computing systems based on such memristors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the current requirements of diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMSs) resulting from continuous advancements in spintronics, designing d0 DMSs with high stability, spin polarization, and Curie temperature is essential. Present research on introducing d0 magnetism is limited to monatomic doping, lacking regulation measures for local magnetic moments and long range magnetic coupling. Herein, an adjacent doping strategy is employed to introduce degrees of freedom for tuning the magnetic properties of d0 DMSs. It is observed that by introducing Si and O atoms as central and adjacent dopants, respectively, the intrinsically nonmagnetic hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) exhibits significant local magnetic moments. Furthermore, it is observed that the ionization energy, total magnetic moment, magnetic coupling, and Curie temperature of the doped h-BN are susceptible to the Si–O coordination. Subsequently, a magnetic half-metal (Si–O3-doped h-BN) with high thermal stability, 100% spin polarization, long range ferromagnetic coupling, and high Curie temperature is designed through high Si–O coordination doping. This study proposes a feasible approach for introducing tunable d0 magnetism using the design of Si–O adjacent-doped h-BN as an example. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, the effects of proton-induced trap evolution on the electrical performances of AlGaN/GaN metal–insulator–semiconductor (MIS) high-electron-mobility-transistors (HEMTs) have been investigated in detail. Contrary to observed proton-induced degradation in sheet electron density (ns), carrier mobility (μn), and sheet resistance (RSH), a significant improvement in gate leakage current (IG) and off-state drain–source breakdown voltage (BVDS) is found in irradiated devices. The low-frequency noise (LFN) results show that the density of traps in the AlGaN layer and AlGaN/GaN interface increases after irradiation, which leads to a degradation in ns, μn, and RSH and an improvement in BVDS due to enhanced electron trapping and depletion. Furthermore, the measurement results obtained from the frequency-dependent conductance technique show that irradiated devices exhibit decreased trap density (DT) at the insulator/semiconductor interface with hardly changed trap energy level (ET), which confirms the observed proton-induced decrease in IG. An increase in DT at the AlGaN/GaN interface is also found after irradiation, which is consistent with LFN results. These traps with deeper ET induce a serious Coulomb scattering effect. This work provides valuable information for the systematic understanding of the proton irradiation effect of AlGaN/GaN MIS-HEMTs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Letter reports two kinds of oxygen-containing plasma treated β-Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs), including N2O plasma treatment and O2 plasma treatment, and the SBD without plasma is prepared for comparison. I–V characteristics, breakdown characteristics, and trap state characteristics of three devices have been studied. It is found that the turn-on voltage of SBDs with N2O plasma can reduce to 0.6 V, and the better current density of 750 A/cm2 and an on-resistance of 3.5 mΩ cm2 are obtained after the N2O plasma treatment. Moreover, the breakdown voltage of SBDs with N2O plasma is 50.2% higher than the conventional one, whose value reaches 323 V. In addition, the trap states' characteristics of the devices are studied, which show that the oxygen-containing plasma can reduce the deep level trap states density partly in the anode region, which can improve the surface quality effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this Letter, we demonstrated deep sub-60 mV/dec subthreshold swings (SS) independent of gate bias sweep direction in GaN-based metal–insulator–semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MISHEMTs) with an Al0.6Ga0.4N/GaN heterostructure and in situ SiN as gate dielectric and surface passivation. Average SS values of 22 and 29 mV/dec over 3–4 orders of drain current (ID) swing were measured during forward and reverse sweeps, respectively, in a 75-nm gate length (LG) device. Sub-60 mV/dec SS was also observed in the GaN MISHEMTs with longer LG up to 350 nm. The intrinsic physical mechanisms of deep sub-60 mV/dec SS were comprehensively studied. The observed negative differential resistance in the gate current, the kinks in the output ID-VD curve, and the capacitance spike in the depletion region of the C–V curves suggest that the capture and emission of electrons in the traps are the dominant physical mechanisms responsible for the small SS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]