Executive Summary : | The solar-blind region, where oxygen atoms in the Earth's atmosphere and stratospheric ozone layer absorb ultraviolet rays with wavelengths less than 280 nm, allows for the detection of weak signals in various fields such as anti-terrorism, security, missile detection, medical imaging, flame sensing, optical communication, and environmental monitoring. Ultrawide-bandgap (UWBG) semiconductors have emerged as the best candidates for solar-blind UV photodetector applications. Several wideband materials have been applied for developing solar-blind photodetectors, but their performance has shown poor results. UWBG beta-gallium oxide, with its wideband energy gap of 4.9 eV, high melting point, high electron mobility, dielectric constant, breakdown electric field, thermal conductivity, Baliga figure of merits, and tunable electrical properties, is considered the best material for solar-blind UV detectors. The optical and electrical performance of intrinsic beta-gallium oxides is suppressed, so tuning the performance can be done by doping specific dopant materials. Currently, n-type dopants like aluminum, Tin, silicon, and gold have been successfully used to enhance their properties. Various deposition methods have been applied to fabricate beta-gallium oxide thin films, but the most appropriate results were obtained from RF sputtering and PLD methods. Fabricating high-quality thin films remains a major challenge for researchers. Both RF sputtering and PLD can produce better quality thin films, with PVD RF sputtering being a useful technique for doping and co-doping on beta-gallium oxide thin films for semiconductor device manufacturing. The aim of the proposal is to develop the technology for solar-blind UV photodetectors using PVD RF sputtering, PLD, or MOCVD methods. |