Surface/structural characteristics and band alignments of thin Ga 2 O 3 films grown on sapphire by pulse laser deposition

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-15-2019

Abstract

Comprehensive structural, electrical and optical studies are performed on a series of gallium oxide (Ga 2 O 3 ) ultrathin films grown on sapphire with different growth temperatures (400–1000 °C) by pulsed laser deposition, via X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS), Raman scattering (RS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). For samples grown at different temperatures, the XAS results showed the coordination numbers of the materials varying, while their bond lengths remained nearly similar value. The RS revealed a low frequency vibration translation tetrahedral-octahedral mode (202 cm −1 ) of GaO 4 and a mid-frequency deformation octahedral mode (346 cm −1 ) of GaO 6 for films grown at higher temperatures. XPS analyses suggested the surface of samples composed of Ga[sbnd]O bonds with binding energy decreasing as the growth temperature increased. The β-Ga 2 O 3 /sapphire heterojunction is identified with the staggered-gap (type II) structure, and the valence-band offset (VBO) is found between (−0.52)–(−0.74) eV while conduction-band offset (CBO) from (−2.32)–(−3.32) eV. The band gap of the β-Ga 2 O 3 was deduced from the energy loss signals for O 1s photoelectrons. With the increase of the growth temperature, the band gap increases and both the VBO and CBO decrease. The identification of band alignment for heterojunction may facilitate interests in designing advanced opto-electronic devices.

Publication Title

Applied Surface Science

Volume

479

First Page

1246

Last Page

1253

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1016/j.apsusc.2019.02.069

ISSN

01694332

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