Electrical Stability of Cr2O3/\b{eta}-Ga2O3 and NiOx/\b{eta}-Ga2O3 Heterojunction Diodes

Abstract

This work reports the electrical characteristics comparison study between Cr2O3 and NiOx based heterojunction diodes (HJD) on halide vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) grown \b{eta}-Ga2O3 epitaxial layers. Both as-fabricated Cr2O3 and NiOx HJDs exhibited forward current density in a range of 130-150 A/cm^2 at 5 V with rectifying ratios >10^10 and a reverse leakage current density at 10^-8 A/cm^2 at -5 V. The differential specific on-resistance of Cr2O3 and NiOx HJDs was 12.01 mΩ*cm^2 and 12.05 mΩ*cm^2, respectively. Breakdown voltages of Cr2O3 HJDs ranged from 1.4-1.9 kV and 1.5-2.3 kV for NiOx HJDs. Theoretical band alignment between Cr2O3 and \b{eta}-Ga2O3 was calculated from first principles. The ambient exposed NiOx/HVPE \b{eta}-Ga2O3 HJDs forward current density degraded after 10 days while that of Cr2O3/HVPE \b{eta}-Ga2O3 HJDs remained nearly unchanged after the same amount of time. It was later confirmed that the ambient exposed sputtered NiOx sheet resistance (Rsh) degradation gave rise to the reduction of the forward current density of the NiOx based HJDs, and water (H2O) was qualitatively determined to be the agent attributed to the forward conduction degradation by measuring the Rsh of NiOx-on-sapphire reference wafer after exposing it to different environments. The Cr2O3/HVPE \b{eta}-Ga2O3 HJD also exhibited enhanced thermal stability compared to the NiOx/\b{eta}-Ga2O3 heterostructures at elevated temperatures. Interfacial nickel gallate (Ga2NiO4) phase formation expected from phase diagrams can explain the reduced thermal stability of NiOx/\b{eta}-Ga2O3 HJDs. This study indicates that Cr2O3 is a stable p-type oxide for the realization of robust multi-kV \b{eta}-Ga2O3 HJDs.