Theoretical and experimental study of (Ga1-xFex)2O3 ternary alloys

Abstract

Thin films of Ga2O3 and its alloys open the possibility of ultrawide bandgap heterostructure device designs that includes HEMT, quantum well UV optoelectronics, wide bandgap spintronics, high resistive buffer layers for FET and electrocatalytic applications. In this paper, (Ga1-xFex)2O3 (for x = 0.0–0.50) thin film alloys as a function of growth temperatures (450–750 °C) and partial oxygen pressures (10-1 −10-6 torr) grown using pulsed laser deposition are reported. The results suggest that, with the increase of Fe content at a fixed growth temperature and pressure, the bandgap decreases (4.93 to 3.43 eV and 4.39 to 2.25 eV for direct and indirect, respectively) due to a change in the Fe oxidation states as the Fe composition is increased from 0 to 50%. Density functional theory calculations also show a reduction in the bandgap of the alloy as the Fe content increases with the formation of a localized band of states close to the conduction band. Fe content, ≥ 40% in the alloy leads a phase change in the crystal structure with the formation of a gamma phase, also corroborated by theoretical calculations. Finally, room temperature ferromagnetic property was observed in thin films with the introduction of Fe into the Ga2O3 lattice.