https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-025-01485-3
Regular Article
Epitaxial lateral overgrowth of ε-Ga2O3 by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition
1
School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-Sen University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-Sen University, 510006, Guangzhou, China
Received:
27
October
2024
Accepted:
24
January
2025
Published online:
10
February
2025
Orthorhombic ε-Ga2O3 is the second most stable phase of the Ga2O3 family, which is usually grown on hexagonal substrates by hetero-epitaxy. Due to the mismatch of rotational symmetry between the ε-Ga2O3 film and the substrate, the hetero-epitaxy of ε-Ga2O3 is accompanied by the problem of rotation domains, which brings a high density of defects in the film. This paper focuses on the epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) of ε-Ga2O3 by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Based on the investigation of nucleation temperature, mask period and direction, the optimal conditions for the ELO growth of ε-Ga2O3 via MOCVD are established. It is found that both the thermal diffusion capability of Ga adatoms and the growth rate anisotropy of ε-Ga2O3 play important roles during the ELO of ε-Ga2O3. A high growth temperature and a short mask period can suppress the nucleation of irregular ε-Ga2O3 grains and improve the crystal quality. Further comparison of different designs of ELO masks revealed that the striped ELO masks predominantly promote the quasi-single-domain growth of ε-Ga2O3. Notably, for samples with striped ELO windows along the sapphire 
, rotation domains are effectively suppressed and the ratio of 0°, + 120°, and − 120° domains increases from 1.01:1:1 to 2.6:1:1.
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Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
