Tutorial: Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition of β-Ga2O3 thin films, alloys, and heterostructures

beta-phase gallium oxide (Ga2O3) is an emerging ultrawide bandgap (UWBG) semiconductor with a bandgap energy of similar to 4.8 eV and a predicted high critical electric field strength of similar to 8 MV/cm, enabling promising applications in next generation high power electronics and deep ultraviolet optoelectronics. The advantages of Ga2O3 also stem from its availability of single crystal bulk native substrates synthesized from melt, and its well-controllable n-type doping from both bulk growth and thin film epitaxy. Among several thin film growth methods, metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) has been demonstrated as an enabling technology for developing high-quality epitaxy of Ga2O3 thin films, (AlxGa1-x)(2)O-3 alloys, and heterostructures along various crystal orientations and with different phases. This tutorial summarizes the recent progresses in the epitaxial growth of beta-Ga2O3 thin films via different growth methods, with a focus on the growth of Ga2O3 and its compositional alloys by MOCVD. The challenges for the epitaxial development of beta-Ga2O3 are discussed, along with the opportunities of future works to enhance the state-of-the-art device performance based on this emerging UWBG semiconductor material system.

Automated summary

This tutorial summarizes the recent advances in the epitaxial growth of beta-Ga2O3 thin films using different growth methods, with a particular focus on the growth of Ga2O3 and its alloys by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The challenges in the epitaxial development of beta-Ga2O3 are discussed, along with the opportunities for improving device performance based on this emerging ultrawide bandgap semiconductor material system.