“Achieving 0.05 Ω-mm contact resistance in non-alloyed Ti/Au ohmics to β-Ga2O3 by removing surface carbon,” authored by Naomi Pieczulewski and Kathleen T. Smith et al., was selected as the Editor’s pick in APL Materials. Through detailed characterization of interface structure and chemistry, the study shows that effective surface cleaning via UV-ozone or oxygen plasma descum removes photoresist residue and adventitious carbon to produce low-resistance contacts by both liftoff and metal-first contact processing. This approach offers a clear path to resolving the wide variability seen in the field.
The work highlights strong collaboration across Cornell’s ACCESS team, with all seven faculty members (David Muller, Grace Xing, Debdeep Jena, Mike Thompson, Darrell Schlom, Hari Nair, and Farhan Rana) co-authoring the paper.
Article available at: https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0276786