PtOx Schottky Contacts on Degenerately Doped 2¯01β-Ga2O3 Substrates

Platinum oxide (PtO x ) Schottky contacts on degenerately doped β -Ga 2 O 3 substrates show an increased barrier height of 85% and 64% when compared to nickel and platinum Schottky contacts, respectively. At low reverse voltage bias, the reverse leakage current of the PtO x Schottky barrier diodes was approximately 5–6 orders of magnitude lower than the reference evaporated Ni and Pt Schottky contacts. PtO x Schottky contacts were deposited using reactive sputtering on highly doped (8 × 10 18 cm −3 ) ( 2 ¯ 01 ) β -Ga 2 O 3 :Sn substrates grown by the edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) method. All Schottky metals were capped with evaporated Au. Capacitance–voltage and temperature-dependent current–voltage measurements were performed in order to extract the barrier height of the PtO x Schottky contact. Analysis of the diode ideality factors reveal that the PtO x Schottky contacts on highly doped β -Ga 2 O 3 do not follow the thermionic field emission model and are impacted by inhomogeneous barrier height distribution. This work highlights the significance of PtO x Schottky contacts for β -Ga 2 O 3 -based power devices as a means for reducing leakage current. This work also holds relevance for low-voltage applications, where Schottky contacts for degenerately doped semiconductors can enable new electronic device applications.