Oxygen vacancies modulating the photodetector performances in ε-Ga2O3 thin films

By acting as the trapping centers during charge carrier transfer, oxygen vacancy (VO) plays a critical role in oxide photoelectric devices. Herein, a post-annealing method was introduced to perfect the photodetection performances of e-Ga2O3 photodetectors (PDs) by improving the film quality and modulating the VO defect concentration. The native oxygen-deficient e-Ga2O3 epitaxial films fabricated via metal–organic chemical vapor deposition become highly dense and VO-less after oxidation annealing, leading to an enhanced performance, while they become VO-rich after reduction annealing to depress the PD property. Compared with the pristine PD, the crucial parameters of the devices with a lower VO concentration have been improved by 1–6 magnitude with a high photo-to-dark current ratio of 1.06 × 108, a large responsivity of 1.368 A W−1, an excellent detectivity of 9.13 × 1014 Jones, a superior linear dynamic range of 176.7 dB and an outstanding external quantum efficiency of 666.5% and a record-high rejection ratio (R240/R400) of 1.80 × 107. As the VO defect is commonly ubiquitous in oxide materials, our investigation of regulating the VO concentrations in e-Ga2O3 and then exerting influences on the PD capabilities will provide principles for designing high-performance photoelectric devices.