Indium Gallium Oxide Alloys: Electronic Structure, Optical Gap, Surface Space Charge, and Chemical Trends within Common-Cation Semiconductors

The electronic and optical properties of (In x Ga 1- x ) 2 O 3 alloys are highly tunable, giving rise to a myriad of applications including transparent conductors, transparent electronics, and solar-blind ultraviolet photodetectors. Here, we investigate these properties for a high quality pulsed laser deposited film which possesses a lateral cation composition gradient (0.01 ≤ x ≤ 0.82) and three crystallographic phases (monoclinic, hexagonal, and bixbyite). The optical gaps over this composition range are determined, and only a weak optical gap bowing is found ( b = 0.36 eV). The valence band edge evolution along with the change in the fundamental band gap over the composition gradient enables the surface space-charge properties to be probed. This is an important property when considering metal contact formation and heterojunctions for devices. A transition from surface electron accumulation to depletion occurs a x ∼ 0.35 as the film goes from the bixbyite In 2 O 3 phase to the monoclinic β-Ga 2 O 3 phase. The electronic structure of the different phases is investigated by using density functional theory calculations and compared to the valence band X-ray photoemission spectra. Finally, the properties of these alloys, such as the n-type dopability of In 2 O 3 and use of Ga 2 O 3 as a solar-blind UV detector, are understood with respect to other common-cation compound semiconductors in terms of simple chemical trends of the band edge positions and the hydrostatic volume deformation potential.