Room-Temperature Ozone Sensing Capability of IGZO-Decorated Amorphous Ga₂O₃ Films

In present work, we report a room-temperature ozone sensor using InGaZnO (IGZO)-decorated amorphous Ga₂O₃ (a-Ga₂O₃) thin films. The gas sensing tests demonstrate that the topmost IGZO modification can significantly promote the sensors’ responsivity. Intriguingly, the sensing capability presents a first increasing and then decreasing tendency as the surface morphology of IGZO develops from dispersed particles to a continuous film. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulation results prove that IGZO nanoparticles can remarkably increase the surface density of photogenerated electrons, clearly manifesting a strong dependence on IGZO particle size and contributing to the boosted responsiveness. However, once IGZO particles coalesce into a thin film, the ozone sensor’s responsivity starts to decrease even though the number of photogenerated carriers still increases. The smaller specific surface area of IGZO thin film is believed to be responsible for this phenomenon. The proposed ozone gas sensors own the merits of low cost, room-temperature detection, easy integration, and mass production, significantly expanding the application fields of a-Ga₂O₃ thin film.