Flexible fast responding solar-blind photodetectors based on (TmGa)<subscript>2</subscript>O<subscript>3</subscript> films grown on mica.

As an ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor, gallium oxide (Ga 2 O 3 ) holds great application potential in deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photodetectors. While the performance of photodetectors based on crystalline Ga 2 O 3 thin films grown on hard substrates has been continuously improved, photodetectors based on amorphous Ga 2 O 3 grown on less-stringent substrates in a more convenient and accessible way emerged as alternative technology and received increasing attention. Herein, we choose thulium (Tm) for doping and grow amorphous Tm-Ga 2 O 3 films on non-lattice-matched flexible mica substrates. Thanks to the larger bandgap of Tm 2 O 3 (∼6.5 eV) and stronger Tm–O bond, the (Tm x Ga 1− x ) 2 O 3 films possess broadened bandgap and lessened oxygen vacancies compared to pure Ga 2 O 3 . Consequently, the photodetectors that were produced based on these amorphous (Tm x Ga 1− x ) 2 O 3 films exhibit high performances with both low dark current and fast response speed (36.47 pA and 0.07 s at x = 0.05) and well maintain the performance after multiple cycles of bending at radius as small as 5 mm. This work sheds light on the development of flexible devices based on amorphous (Tm x Ga 1− x ) 2 O 3 for solar-blind DUV detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Applied Physics Letters is the property of American Institute of Physics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)