The effects of high temperature thermal treatments on β-Ga2O3 films grown on c-sapphire by low-pressure CVD

Abstract

As a simple and effective method for improving the crystalline quality of epitaxial Ga2O3 film, post-thermal treatment has been identified as a competitive process involving crystal reconstruction accompanied by defect formation. In this study, β-Ga2O3 films grown on a c-sapphire substrate using low-pressure chemical vapor deposition were subjected to thermal treatment at 1000 °C in air for various duration to investigate the effects of treatment time on the films. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of x-ray rocking curves initially decreased from 1.62° to 0.98° with increasing treatment time up to 5 h, indicating improved crystallinity. This improvement is likely a result of the reduced angle between Ga2O3 grains and the reconstructed Ga2O3 lattice, oriented towards the (−201) plane due to the thermal treatment, as observed in the transmission electron microscope and electron back-scattering diffraction results. However, under 7 h of treatment, the crystallinity of Ga2O3 degraded, as evidenced by an increased FWHM, as well as by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, photoluminescence, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry results. This degradation can be attributed to the presence of massive oxygen vacancies and the substitutional incorporation of nitrogen into oxygen sites (NO), resulting in defects.