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Band Offsets at κ-([Al,In]xGa1-x)2O3/MgO Interfaces

Schultz T, Kneiß M, Storm P, Splith D, von Wenckstern H, Grundmann M, Koch N

ACS applied materials & interfaces, 2020

Abstract

Conduction and valence band offsets are among the most crucial material parameters for semiconductor heterostructure device design, such as for high-electron mobility transistors or quantum well infrared photodetectors (QWIP). Because of its expected high spontaneous electrical polarization and the possibility of polarization doping at heterointerfaces similar to the AlGaN/InGaN/GaN system, the metastable orthorhombic κ-phase of Ga2O3 and its indium and aluminum alloy systems are a promising alternative for such device applications. However, respective band offsets to any dielectric are unknown, as well as the evolution of the bands within the alloy systems. We report on the valence and conduction band offsets of orthorhombic κ-(AlxGa1-x)2O3 and κ-(InxGa1-x)2O3 thin films to MgO as reference dielectric by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The thin films with compositions xIn ≤ 0.27 and xAl ≤ 0.55 were grown by pulsed laser deposition utilizing tin-doped and radially segmented targets. The determined band alignments reveal the formation of a type I heterojunction to MgO for all compositions with conduction band offsets of at least 1.4 eV, providing excellent electron confinement. Only low valence band offsets with a maximum of ∼300 meV were observed. Nevertheless, this renders MgO as a promising gate dielectric for metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors in the orthorhombic modification. We further found that the conduction band offsets in the alloy systems are mainly…

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