Bandgap narrowing and hole self-trapping reduction in Ga2O3 by Bi2O3 alloying

Ga2O3 is an emerging material with attractive electrical properties for improving the performance of high-voltage power electronics, and it is widely accepted that engineering its band edge energies will expand its applications, especially for bipolar devices. In this work, monoclinic phase (BixGa1−x)2O3 ternary alloys are fabricated on c-plane sapphire via magnetron co-sputtering of Ga2O3 and Bi2O3. The bandgap of Ga2O3 is found to decrease from 4.97 to 4.78 eV by alloying with a Bi x-fraction of 0.04, consistent with the theoretical prediction that alloying with Bi2O3 causes the up-shift of the valence band. Concurrent temperature-resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements of the Ga2O3 and (Bi0.04Ga0.96)2O3 are employed to investigate their intrinsic ultraviolet (UV) luminescence and defect-related visible bands with increasing temperature from 80 K. The CL results reveal a more rapid thermal quenching of the self-trapped hole (STH) emission with an activation energy of only 32 meV, suggesting that alloying with Bi2O3 lowers the self-trapping energy for holes. Temperature-dependent electrical measurements reveal the conductivity of the (Bi0.04Ga0.96)2O3 film is one order of magnitude lower than that of the undoped Ga2O3 counterpart; however, both possess an electrical activation energy of ∼ 26 meV, likely associated with an impurity-related shallow donor. The low electrical conductivity of (Bi0.04Ga0.96)2O3 can be attributed to the compensation of shallow donors by acceptors activated by the Bi2O3-induced upward shift of the valence band edge. The frequency-dependent conduction and ionic polarization mechanisms up to 107 Hz are found to be identical for Ga2O3 and (Bi0.04Ga0.96)2O3, indicating that the conduction in this ternary alloy does not involve the activation of Bi acceptors.