【Substrate Papers】Surface termination of β-Ga₂O₃ (100) as-cleaved single crystals

      Researchers from the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY have published a dissertation titled "Surface termination of β-Ga₂O₃(100) as-cleaved single crystals" in Applied Physics Letters.

Abstract

      The surface of β-Ga₂O₃ single crystals cleaved along their (100) plane is investigated using surface x-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy. The results show the surface to consist of a single, so-called B-termination, which means that the crystal cleaves at planes formed by edge-sharing oxygen octahedra, thereby breaking the longest and weakest Ga–O bonds. Refinement of the atomic positions results in small displacements from the bulk structure, at most approximately 0.01 Å. Atomic force microscopy suggests that relatively large terraces form together with steps of half the a-axis length of approximately 0.6 nm, which means that terraces have the same atomic termination, related by the crystal symmetry. These results are important as a fundamental property of -Ga₂O₃ when processed or used in various semiconductor applications.

DOI：

https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0309937