Non-Drude-Type Response of Photocarriers in Fe-Doped β-Ga₂O₃ Crystal

Abstract

Beta gallium oxide, β-Ga2O3, is one of the promising ultrawide bandgap semiconductors with a monoclinic (C2/m) β-phase structure showing strong anisotropic properties. To improve the performance of these devices, more optical characterization is required. Here, the anisotropic carrier dynamics in optically excited (010) oriented Fe-doped β-Ga2O3 was studied by terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. An 800 nm continuous-wave light source was employed to excite carriers from Fe acceptors to the conduction band and to probe an anisotropic interaction with the THz field. The complex THz conductivities fitted with the Drude and Drude–Smith models revealed that the optically excited carriers behave as nearly free carriers along the a-axis, whereas those along the c-axis show a non-Drude type response. The estimated mobility for the c-axis agrees with the reported values, whereas the results suggest much higher mobility along the a-axis.

Keywords

• terahertz time-domain spectroscopy
• Fe-doped beta gallium oxide
• Drude and Drude–Smith models