The surface tension of Ga2O3 melt measured by a drop-weight method in an optical floating-zone furnace

Abstract

The surface tension of Ga2O3 melt is successfully measured using a drop-weight method in an optical floating-zone furnace that we have developed. The method is verified to be feasible by measuring the surface tension value of TiO2 melt and then comparing it with values in previous reports determined by other methods. We find that the surface tension of Si-doped Ga2O3 melt increases with the decrease in the Si doping concentration and reaches 527.9 mN m−1 for pure Ga2O3 melt. The surface tension of the unintentionally doped Ga2O3 melt is also measured to be 519.3 mN m−1 in the presence of some common contaminants appearing in Czochralski and edge-defined film-fed growth methods, including Ir, Al, and Si.