Electrical conductivity of In₂O₃ and Ga₂O₃ after low temperature ion irradiation; implications for instrinsic defect...

The evolution of sheet resistance of n-type In₂O₃ and Ga₂O₃ exposed to bombardment with MeV ¹²C and ²⁸Si ions at 35 K is studied in situ. While the sheet resistance of Ga₂O₃ increased by more than eight orders of magnitude as a result of ion irradiation, In₂O₃ showed a more complex defect evolution and became more conductive when irradiated at the highest doses. Heating up to room temperature reduced the sheet resistivity somewhat, but Ga₂O₃ remained highly resistive, while In₂O₃ showed a lower resistance than as deposited samples. Thermal admittance spectroscopy and deep level transient spectroscopy did not reveal new defect levels for irradiation up to [Formula: see text] cm^-2. A model where larger defect complexes preferentially produce donor like defects in In₂O₃ is proposed, and may reveal a microscopic view of a charge neutrality level within the conduction band, as previously proposed.