Towards high-mobility In_2xGa_2–2xO₃ nanowire field-effect transistors

Recently, owing to the excellent electrical and optical properties, n-type In₂O₃ nanowires (NWs) have attracted tremendous attention for application in memory devices, solar cells, and ultra-violet photodetectors. However, the relatively low electron mobility of In₂O₃ NWs grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) has limited their further utilization. In this study, utilizing in-situ Ga alloying, highly crystalline, uniform, and thin In_2xGa_2−2xO₃ NWs with diameters down to 30 nm were successfully prepared via ambient-pressure CVD. Introducing an optimal amount of Ga (10 at.%) into the In₂O₃ lattice was found to effectively enhance the crystal quality and reduce the number of oxygen vacancies in the NWs. A further increase in the Ga concentration adversely induced the formation of a resistive β-Ga₂O₃ phase, thereby deteriorating the electrical properties of the NWs. Importantly, when configured into global back-gated NW field-effect transistors, the optimized In_1.8Ga_0.2O₃ NWs exhibit significantly enhanced electron mobility reaching up to 750 cm²·V^–1·s^–1 as compared with that of the pure In₂O₃ NW, which can be attributed to the reduction in the number of oxygen vacancies and ionized impurity scattering centers. Highly ordered NW parallel arrayed devices were also fabricated to demonstrate the versatility and potency of these NWs for next-generation, large-scale, and high-performance nanoelectronics, sensors, etc.