Teherani, Ferechteh H.
; Rogers, David J.
(Ed.)
We demonstrated a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) of smooth, thick, and monoclinic phase-pure gallium oxide (Ga2O3) on c-plane sapphire using silicon-oxygen bonding (SiOx) as a phase stabilizer. The corundum (α), monoclinic (β), and orthorhombic (ε) phases of Ga2O3 with a bandgap in the 4.4 – 5.1 eV range, are promising materials for power semiconductor devices and deep ultraviolet (UV) solar-blind photodetectors. The MOCVD systems are extensively used for homoepitaxial growth of β-Ga2O3 on (001), (100), (010), and (¯2 01) β-Ga2O3 substrates. These substrates are rare/expensive and have very low thermal conductivity; thus, are not suitable for high-power semiconductor devices. The c-plane sapphire is typically used as a substrate for high-power devices. The β-Ga2O3 grows in the (¯2 01) direction on sapphire. In this direction, the presence of high-density oxygen dangling bonds, frequent stacking faults, twinning, and other phases and planes impede the heteroepitaxy of thick β-Ga2O3. Previously phase stabilizations with SiOx have been reported for tetragonal and monoclinic hafnia. We were able to grow ~580nm thick β-Ga2O3 on sapphire by MOCVD at 750 oC through phase stabilization using silane. The samples grown with silane have a reduction in the surface roughness and resistivity from 10.7 nm to 4.4 nm and from 371.75 Ω.cm to 135.64 Ω.cm, respectively. These samples show a pure-monoclinic phase determined by x-ray diffraction (XRD); have tensile strain determined by Raman strain mapping. These results show that a thick, phase-pure -Ga2O3 can be grown on c-plane sapphire which can be suitable for creating power devices with better thermal management.
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