Pulsed x-ray detector based on Fe doped β-Ga2O3 single crystal

Abstract

Abstract β-Ga2O3 has shown great potential for x-ray detection. In this paper, we demonstrate a nanosecond fast-response metal–semiconductor–metal x-ray detection based on Fe doped semi-insulating β-Ga2O3 single crystal. Material characterizations revealed that the iron substituting for gallium (FeGa) and oxygen vacancy (V O) were the main defects within the β-Ga2O3 and led to a high resistivity property of the material. The detector feathered a low dark current ∼270 pA (955 × pA cm−2) at 800 V and the x-ray detection process was slightly affected by the photodonductive gain. To x-ray illumination, the detector exhibited a low noise-equivalent dose rate ∼4.1 × 10−7 Gyair s−1 Hz−0.5, a response sensitivity of 23.2 nC Gyair −1 and a fast transient response (<20 ms). In addition, a pulsed x-ray detection in 50 ns was achieved and the time resolution of the β-Ga2O3 detector was revealed to be <2 ns. The results demonstrate that the β-Ga2O3-based detector was promising for fast x-ray detection application.