Impact of electron injection and temperature on minority carrier transport in alpha-irradiated ß-Ga₂O₃ Schottky rectifiers

The effect of electron injection on minority carrier transport in Si-doped β-Ga₂O₃ Schottky rectifiers with 18 MeV alpha particle exposure (fluences of 10¹²–10¹³ cm⁻²) was studied from room temperature to 120°C. Electron Beam-Induced Current technique in-situ in Scanning Electron Microscope was used to find the diffusion length of holes as a function of duration of electron injection and temperature for alpha-particle irradiated rectifiers and compared with non-irradiated reference devices. The activation energy for electron injection-induced effect on diffusion length for the alpha-particle irradiated sample was determined to be ∼ 49 meV as compared to ∼74 meV for the reference sample. The decrease in activation energy of the electron injection effect on diffusion length for irradiated sample is attributed to radiation-induced generation of additional shallow recombination centers closer to the conduction band edge.