Catalyst-modified vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth of single crystalline β-Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) thin film on Si-substrate

In the current work, a single crystalline beta-Gallium Oxide (Ga2O3) thin film (similar to 15 nm) is grown on Si-substrate by employing catalyst-modified vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) method. The FESEM and AFM images indicate the formation of a continuous film with small surface roughness. XRD measurement confirms the formation of a highly crystalline (1) over bar 11>-plane of beta-phase of Ga2O3. The chemical states and optical properties of such films are analyzed by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). The energy bandgap, refractive index and extinction coefficient of the grown beta-Ga2O3 film are obtained to be 4.78 eV, 1.84 and 0.10, respectively. The vacancies/defect states are studied from Photoluminescence (PL) spectra where the major PL-peaks corroborate with the transitional energy values obtained from SE measurement. Therefore, the study suggests that the VLS method, amongst the state-of-the-art growth techniques, is capable of growing high-quality single crystalline beta-Ga2O3 thin film in a relatively simple and cost-effective approach.