Fundamentals of Doping and Defects in Ga2O3 for High Breakdown Field

PO: Dr. Ali Sayir
PI: Professor Michael Scarpulla, Departments of Materials Science and Engineering & Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Utah

β-Ga2O3 is an emerging ultra-wide band gap material with promise to enable next-generation high voltage power devices. It is of interest to the DoD because of the fundamental importance of high voltage and power devices and systems.

A rigorous understanding of the interplay and control of doping, defects, interfaces and electronic transport under extreme environments is critical to unlock the full potential of β-Ga2O3. The team brings together a unique collection of expertise in a wide range of topics that will be applied to investigate the fundamental materials properties β-Ga2O3 and unlock its potentials. These include bulk oxide crystal growth, epitaxial growth, modification of semiconductor doping and defects in processing, various electrical defect spectroscopies, optical spectroscopy, and positron annihilation spectroscopy.

We propose to undertake a highly synergistic approach with rigorous interaction and feedback loops between materials synthesis and characterization to gain a comprehensive understanding of defects materials science in β-Ga2O3. This MURI project will uncover the fundamental potential and limitations of β-Ga2O3-based materials platform for kilovolt-class lateral power switch operation and megavolt-class vertical switches.