Structural characterization of threading dislocation in α-Ga2O3 thin films on c- and m-plane sapphire substrates.

We discuss the structure of threading dislocations in α-Ga₂O₃ thin films grown on c- and m-plane sapphire substrates. The thickness-dependent threading dislocation density in both films directly affects the electrical properties of the films including carrier concentration and mobility. Two distinct types of threading dislocations are identified for each of the c- and m-plane α-Ga₂O₃ thin films. The c-plane α-Ga₂O₃ thin film shows Burgers vectors of 1 / 3 [ 1 1 ¯ 01 ] and 1 / 3 [ 11 2 ¯ 0 ] , while the m-plane α-Ga₂O₃ thin film displays Burgers vectors of 1 / 3 [ 2 1 ¯ 1 ¯ 0 ] and 1 / 3 [ 1 1 ¯ 01 ]. This paper presents a detailed structure of the threading dislocations in α-Ga₂O₃, which has been little disclosed thus far mainly due to the difficulty in synthesizing the metastable α-Ga₂O₃. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]