posted on 2022-01-18, 16:10authored byDuyoung Yang, Byungsoo Kim, Jehong Oh, Tae Hyung Lee, Jungel Ryu, Sohyeon Park, Seungsoo Kim, Euijoon Yoon, Yongjo Park, Ho Won Jang
α-Gallium
oxide, with its large band gap energy, is a promising
material for utilization in power devices. Sapphire, which has the
same crystal structure as α-Ga2O3, has
been used as a substrate for α-Ga2O3 epitaxial
growth. However, lattice and thermal expansion coefficient mismatches
generate a high density of threading dislocations (TDs) and cracks
in films. Here, we demonstrated the growth of α-Ga2O3 films with reduced TD density and residual stress on
microcavity-embedded sapphire substrates (MESS). We fabricated the
two types of substrates with microcavities: diameters of 1.5 and 2.2
μm, respectively. We confirmed that round conical-shaped cavities
with smaller diameters are beneficial for the lateral overgrowth of
α-Ga2O3 crystals with lower TD densities
by mist chemical vapor deposition. We could obtain crack-free high-crystallinity
α-Ga2O3 films on MESS, while the direct
growth on a bare sapphire substrate resulted in an α-Ga2O3 film with a number of cracks. TD densities of
α-Ga2O3 films on MESS with 1.5 and 2.2
μm cavities were measured to be 1.77 and 6.47 × 108 cm–2, respectively. Furthermore, cavities
in MESS were certified to mitigate the residual stress via the redshifted
Raman peaks of α-Ga2O3 films. Finally,
we fabricated Schottky diodes based on α-Ga2O3 films grown on MESS with 1.5 and 2.2 μm cavities, which
exhibited high breakdown voltages of 679 and 532 V, respectively.
This research paves the way to fabricating Schottky diodes with high
breakdown voltages based on high-quality α-Ga2O3 films.