Epitaxial gallium oxide on a SiC/Si substrate

Well-textured gallium oxide β-Ga₂O₃ layers with a thickness of ~1 μm and a close to epitaxial layer structure were grown by the method of chloride vapor phase epitaxy on Si(111) wafers with a nano-SiC buffer layer. In order to improve the growth, a high-quality silicon carbide buffer layer ~100 nm thick was preliminarily synthesized by the substitution of atoms on the silicon surface. The β-Ga₂O₃ films were thoroughly investigated using reflection high-energy electron diffraction, ellipsometry, X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and micro-Raman spectroscopy. The investigations revealed that the films are textured with a close to epitaxial structure and consist of a pure β-phase Ga₂O₃ with the (\(\overline 2 01\)) orientation. The dependence of the dielectric constant of epitaxial β-Ga₂O₃ on the photon energy ranging from 0.7 to 6.5 eV in the isotropic approximation was measured.