Impact of NaOH solution surface treatment on Al2O3/β-Ga2O3 MOS capacitors

A suitable semiconductor surface treatment could improve the gate dielectric quality and reduce the interface states and traps to enhance the performance of metal–oxide semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs). In this paper, β-Ga2O3 surface treatment using NaOH solution prior to atomic layer deposition of Al2O3 was investigated. In comparison with piranha pretreatment, MOSCAPs with NaOH solution surface pretreatment show a larger maximum accumulation capacitance with less frequency dispersion, reduced charges/traps and interface state density Dit. The improvement in MOSCAPs performance could be attributed to the NaOH solution pretreatment induced slight surface etching effect and relatively effective hydroxylation surface. These results suggest that the process optimization of NaOH solution surface pretreatment could lead to further improvement of β-Ga2O3 MOSCAPs and have a potential in application of β-Ga2O3 metal–oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors in the future.