High-responsivity (In0.26Ga0.74)2O3 UV detectors on sapphire realized by microwave irradiation-assisted deposition

We report on the demonstration of (InxGa1-x)2O3 (InGaO)-based UV photodetectors realized using a low temperature (∼200 °C) microwave irradiation-assisted deposition technique. By irradiating a solution of the substituted acetylacetonate (acac) complex, namely In0.6Ga0.4(acac)3, employed as the “single-source precursor”, InGaO film was deposited on sapphire substrate, and found to be poly(nano)crystalline, with root mean square (r.m.s). roughness of 8.9 nm. However, the indium content of the film (0.26 mol fraction) was considerably less than in the metal complex (0.6 mol fraction). The optical band gap of the film was found to be 4.5 eV from Tauc’s plot, indicative of a low indium mole fraction. This was confirmed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements, from which the indium mole fraction was found to be 0.26. Further, the nature of band gap was determined and defect analysis was carried out using, respectively, Tauc’s plot and cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements. A planar, interdigitated metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetector fabricated with the InGaO film exhibited a high responsivity of 16.9 A/W at a bias of 20 V, corresponding to a band edge at ∼ 276 nm, with a high photo-to-dark current ratio of ∼105.