A research team has reported seeing, for the first time, atomic scale defects that dictate the properties of a new and powerful semiconductor.
The study, published earlier this month in the journal Physical Review X, shows a fundamental aspect of how the semiconductor, beta gallium oxide, controls electricity.
“Our job is to try to identify why this material, called beta gallium oxide, acts the way it acts at the fundamental level,” said Jared Johnson, lead author of the study and a graduate research associate at The Ohio State University Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis. “It is important to know why this material has the properties it has, and how it acts as a semiconductor, and we wanted to look at it at the atomic level — to see what we could learn.”
Scientists have known about beta gallium oxide for about 50 years, but only in the last several years has it become an intriguing option for engineers looking to build more reliable, more efficient high-powered technologies. The material is especially well-suited for devices used in extreme conditions, such as in the defense industry. The team has been studying beta gallium oxide for its potential to provide high-density power.
For this study, the CEMAS team, overseen by Jinwoo Hwang, assistant professor of materials science and engineering, examined beta gallium oxide under a powerful electron microscope, to see the way the material’s atoms interacted. What they saw confirmed a theory first hypothesized about a decade ago by theorists: Beta gallium oxide has a form of imperfection in its structure, something the team refers to as “point defects,” which are unlike any defects previously seen in other materials.
Read more about the defects scientists see in potential new semiconductor