VLS growth of pure and Au decorated β-Ga2O3 nanowires for room temperature CO gas sensor and resistive memory applications

High-density single crystalline beta-Ga2O3 nanowires on silicon (1 0 0) substrates were grown by vapour-liquid-solid growth method. We have characterized the pure beta-Ga2O3 nanowires along with the Au-decorated beta-Ga2O3 nanowires. The CO gas sensors at room temperature (RT) have been studied for pure and Au decorated nanowires with multiple-networked array and single nanowire devices. The diameter of the 1D nanostructure ranged from 127 +/- 5 nm. The synthesized nanowires were studied using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), Gracing Incidence X-ray Diffraction (GI-XRD), Photoluminescence (PL), Raman spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Using the Focussed Ion Beam (FIB) technique, single nanowire gas sensor devices were fabricated. Single nanowire RT CO gas sensors using the proposed Au decorated beta-Ga2O3 nanowire achieved remarkable sensitivity for 100 ppm CO gas at room temperature. Besides, we have compared the RT CO gas sensing properties of multiple-networked Au decorated beta-Ga2O3 nanowires with single Au-decorated beta-Ga2O3 nanowire and single pure beta-Ga2O3 nanowire. In addition, bipolar resistive switching property is inspected for the Au/pure beta-Ga2O3 nanowires/p-Si and Au/Au decorated beta-Ga2O3 nanowires/p-Si structures.