Growth mechanism and characteristics of beta-Ga2O3 heteroepitaxailly grown on sapphire by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

In this study, monoclinic gallium oxide (beta-Ga2O3) epilayer was successfully grown on c-plane, (0001), sapphire substrate by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) with interplaying growth temperature, TEGa flow rate, and growth time. X-ray diffraction 20 scans show only three narrow diffraction peaks referred to beta-Ga2O3 ((2) over bar 01), ((4) over bar 02), and ((6) over bar 03) in all epilayers, indicating a superior crystalline quality. Current-voltage (I-V) measurement reveals that these beta-Ga2O3 films are insulating and exhibit high resistance in a range of 10(12)-10(14) Omega. The crystallization characteristics of the epilayers can be effectively improved with thickness through increasing TEGa flow rate and growth time, which was evidenced by X-ray rocking curves and I-V measurements. However, the surface roughness of beta-Ga2O3 film increases with growth time and TEGa flow rate. When the growth temperature increases above 825 degrees C, the thickness of beta-Ga2O3 film decreases clearly. Furthermore, it can be found that the growth rate decreased as the growth time increasing. The growth mechanism based on first-principles calculation was proposed as that 3D growth induced by the lattice mismatch between beta-Ga2O3 and sapphire starts at nucleation stage, and follows up a lateral growth promoting a 2D growth after the thick epilayer being grown. In addition, the complex chemical reaction between TEGa and oxygen precursors was unraveled by density function theory calculation. (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).