Bandgap Engineering of Ga₂O₃ by MOCVD Through Alloying with Indium

Ga₂O₃ and In₂O₃ are vital semiconductors with current and future electronic device applications. Here, we study the alloying of In₂O₃ and Ga₂O₃ (IGO) and the associated changes in structure, morphology, band gap, and electrical transport properties. Undoped films of IGO were deposited on sapphire substrates with varying indium (In) percentage from zero to 100% by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Some films were annealed in H₂ to induce electrical conductivity. The measurements showed the optical band gap decreased by adding In; this was confirmed by density functional (DFT) calculations, which revealed that the nature of the valence band maximum and conduction band minimum strongly relate to the chemistry and that the band gap drops by adding In. The as-grown films were highly resistive except for pure In₂O₃, which possesses p-type conductivity, likely arising from In vacancy-related acceptor states. N-type conductivity was induced in all films after H-anneal. DFT calculations revealed that the presence of In decreases the electron effective mass, which is consistent with the electrical transport measurements that showed higher electron mobility for higher In percentage. The work revealed the successful band gap engineering of IGO and the modification of its band structure while maintaining high-quality films by MOCVD.. Authors: Islam, Md Minhazul [Bowling Green State Univ., OH (United States)]; Hernandez, A. [Bowling Green State Univ., OH (United States)]; Appuhami, H. [Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)] (ORCID:0009000732449039); Banerjee, A. [Indian Inst. of Technology (IIT), Jodhpur (India)]; Uberuaga, Blas Pedro [Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)] (ORCID:0000000169346219). DOE Contract: 89233218CNA000001. Subjects: 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; density functional theory; density of states; electronic transport; hydrogen doping; semiconductor; tuning electron mobility; wide bandgap material