Effects of 300-MeV Proton Irradiation on Electrical Properties of β-Ga2O3 Schottky Barrier Diodes

In the complex space radiation environment, space electronic devices are inevitably damaged by energetic particles, such as protons, leading to degradation of electrical performance. However, previous studies have rarely explored the effect of proton irradiation on the electrical properties of $\boldsymbol {\beta } $ -Ga2O3 Schottky barrier diodes (SBDs), and the underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. This article investigates the effect of 300-MeV proton irradiation on the electrical properties of the $\boldsymbol {\beta } $ -Ga2O3 SBD. The degradation mechanisms are evaluated through current-voltage (I–V), capacitance-voltage (C–V), and deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements. After 300-MeV proton irradiation with the influence of $1\times 10^{{13}}$ p/cm2, the SBD devices show significant reduc- tion in forward current density and breakdown voltage ( ${V} _{\text {br}}$ ). The degradation is related to the decrease in carrier concentration due to the generation of body defects in the epitaxial layer caused by proton irradiation. In addition, further DLTS measurement shows that the body defects induced by 300-MeV proton irradiation are deep energy level defects, energy level ( ${E} _{C}$ – ${E} _{T}$ ) increases from 0.758 to 1.345 eV, and the defect concentration increases from $1.08\times 10^{{13}}$ cm $^{-{3}}$ to $1.51\times 10^{{13}}$ cm $^{-{3}}$ .