Understanding the Growth Mechanism of β-(Al_xGa_1−x)₂O₃ by Atom Probe Tomography

AlxGa1-x)2O3 is a promising material for high power electronics and optoelectronics due to its wide band gap, tunable between 4.8 eV (-Ga2O3) and 8.7 eV (-Al2O3) (AlxGa1-x)2O3, being a potential new material, different growth techniques such as molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), pulsed laser deposition, mist chemical vapor deposition etc. [1] have been introduced to obtain high quality crystal growth. The growth mechanism of this material plays an important role in obtaining high crystal quality which in turn helps researchers to fabricate improved performance devices. Atom Probe Tomography (APT) is a powerful nanoscale analyzing tool that yields elemental information down to sub-nanometer resolution providing structural and compositional details of the material [2]. Here we have employed APT to understand the growth mechanism of -(AlxGa1-x)2O3 using plasma assisted MBE (PAMBE) system. Information thus obtained is crucial in explaining material growth and determining crystal quality for device implementations.