Search Results

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
  • Item
    Ultra-wide bandgap, conductive, high mobility, and high quality melt-grown bulk ZnGa2O4 single crystals
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publ., 2019) Galazka, Zbigniew; Ganschow, Steffen; Schewski, Robert; Irmscher, Klaus; Klimm, Detlef; Kwasniewski, Albert; Pietsch, Mike; Fiedler, Andreas; Schulze-Jonack, Isabelle; Albrecht, Martin; Schröder, Thomas; Bickermann, Matthias
    Truly bulk ZnGa2O4 single crystals were obtained directly from the melt. High melting point of 1900 ± 20 °C and highly incongruent evaporation of the Zn- and Ga-containing species impose restrictions on growth conditions. The obtained crystals are characterized by a stoichiometric or near-stoichiometric composition with a normal spinel structure at room temperature and by a narrow full width at half maximum of the rocking curve of the 400 peak of (100)-oriented samples of 23 arcsec. ZnGa2O4 is a single crystalline spinel phase with the Ga/Zn atomic ratio up to about 2.17. Melt-grown ZnGa2O4 single crystals are thermally stable up to 1100 and 700 °C when subjected to annealing for 10 h in oxidizing and reducing atmospheres, respectively. The obtained ZnGa2O4 single crystals were either electrical insulators or n-type semiconductors/degenerate semiconductors depending on growth conditions and starting material composition. The as-grown semiconducting crystals had the resistivity, free electron concentration, and maximum Hall mobility of 0.002–0.1 Ωcm, 3 × 1018–9 × 1019 cm−3, and 107 cm2 V−1 s−1, respectively. The semiconducting crystals could be switched into the electrically insulating state by annealing in the presence of oxygen at temperatures ≥700 °C for at least several hours. The optical absorption edge is steep and originates at 275 nm, followed by full transparency in the visible and near infrared spectral regions. The optical bandgap gathered from the absorption coefficient is direct with a value of about 4.6 eV, close to that of β-Ga2O3. Additionally, with a lattice constant of a = 8.3336 Å, ZnGa2O4 may serve as a good lattice-matched substrate for magnetic Fe-based spinel films.
  • Item
    REScO3 Substrates—Purveyors of Strain Engineering
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2019) Klimm, Detlef; Guguschev, Christo; Ganschow, Steffen; Bickermann, Matthias; Schlom, Darrell G.
    The thermodynamic and crystallographic background for the development of substrate crystals that are suitable for the epitaxial deposition of biaxially strained functional perovskite layers is reviewed. In such strained layers the elastic energy delivers an additional contribution to the Gibbs free energy, which allows the tuning of physical properties and phase transition temperatures to desired values. For some oxide systems metastable phases can even be accessed. Rare-earth scandates, REScO3, are well suited as substrate crystals because they combine mechanical and chemical stability in the epitaxy process with an adjustable range of pseudo-cubic lattice parameters in the 3.95 to 4.02 Å range. To further tune the lattice parameters, chemical substitution for the RE or Sc is possible. © 2019 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
  • Item
    Melt Growth and Physical Properties of Bulk LaInO3 Single Crystals
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Galazka, Zbigniew; Irmscher, Klaus; Ganschow, Steffen; Zupancic, Martina; Aggoune, Wahib; Draxl, Claudia; Albrecht, Martin; Klimm, Detlef; Kwasniewski, Albert; Schulz, Tobias; Pietsch, Mike; Dittmar, Andrea; Grueneberg, Raimund; Juda, Uta; Schewski, Robert; Bergmann, Sabine; Cho, Hyeongmin; Char, Kookrin; Schroeder, Thomas; Bickermann, Matthias
    Large bulk LaInO3 single crystals are grown from the melt contained within iridium crucibles by the vertical gradient freeze (VGF) method. The obtained crystals are undoped or intentionally doped with Ba or Ce, and enabled wafer fabrication of size 10 × 10 mm2. High melting point of LaInO3 (≈1880 °C) and thermal instability at high temperatures require specific conditions for bulk crystal growth. The crystals do not undergo any phase transition up to 1300 °C, above which a noticeable thermal decomposition takes place. The good structural quality of the crystals makes them suitable for epitaxy. The onset of strong optical absorption shows orientation-dependent behavior due to the orthorhombic symmetry of the LaInO3 crystals. Assuming direct transitions, optical bandgaps of 4.35 and 4.39 eV are obtained for polarizations along the [010] and the [100], [001] crystallographic directions, respectively. There is an additional weak absorption in the range between 2.8 and 4 eV due to oxygen vacancies. Density-functional-theory calculations support the interpretation of the optical absorption data. Cathodoluminescence spectra show a broad, structured emission band peaking at ≈2.2 eV. All bulk crystals are electrically insulating. The relative static dielectric constant is determined at a value of 24.6 along the [001] direction.
  • Item
    Experimental Hall electron mobility of bulk single crystals of transparent semiconducting oxides
    (Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press, 2021) Galazka, Zbigniew; Irmscher, Klaus; Pietsch, Mike; Ganschow, Steffen; Schulz, Detlev; Klimm, Detlef; Hanke, Isabelle M.; Schroeder, Thomas; Bickermann, Matthias
    We provide a comparative study of basic electrical properties of bulk single crystals of transparent semiconducting oxides (TSOs) obtained directly from the melt (9 compounds) and from the gas phase (1 compound), including binary (β-Ga2O3, In2O3, ZnO, SnO2), ternary (ZnSnO3, BaSnO3, MgGa2O4, ZnGa2O4), and quaternary (Zn1−xMgxGa2O4, InGaZnO4) systems. Experimental outcome, covering over 200 samples measured at room temperature, revealed n-type conductivity of all TSOs with free electron concentrations (ne) between 5 × 1015 and 5 × 1020 cm−3 and Hall electron mobilities (μH) up to 240 cm2 V−1 s−1. The widest range of ne values was achieved for β-Ga2O3 and In2O3. The most electrically conducting bulk crystals are InGaZnO4 and ZnSnO3 with ne > 1020 cm−3 and μH > 100 cm2 V−1 s−1. The highest μH values > 200 cm2 V−1 s−1 were measured for SnO2, followed by BaSnO3 and In2O3 single crystals. In2O3, ZnO, ZnSnO3, and InGaZnO4 crystals were always conducting, while others could be turned into electrical insulators.
  • Item
    Bulk single crystals and physical properties of β-(AlxGa1-x)2O3(x = 0-0.35) grown by the Czochralski method
    (Melville, NY : American Inst. of Physics, 2023) Galazka, Zbigniew; Fiedler, Andreas; Popp, Andreas; Ganschow, Steffen; Kwasniewski, Albert; Seyidov, Palvan; Pietsch, Mike; Dittmar, Andrea; Anooz, Saud Bin; Irmscher, Klaus; Suendermann, Manuela; Klimm, Detlef; Chou, Ta-Shun; Rehm, Jana; Schroeder, Thomas; Bickermann, Matthias
    We have systematically studied the growth, by the Czochralski method, and basic physical properties of a 2 cm and 2 in. diameter bulk β-(AlxGa1-x)2O3 single crystal with [Al] = 0-35 mol. % in the melt in 5 mol. % steps. The segregation coefficient of Al in the Ga2O3 melt of 1.1-1.2 results in a higher Al content in the crystals than in the melt. The crystals were also co-doped with Si or Mg. [Al] = 30 mol. % in the melt (33-36 mol. % in the crystals) seems to be a limit for obtaining bulk single crystals of high structural quality suitable for homoepitaxy. The crystals were either semiconducting (no intentional co-dopants with [Al] = 0-30 mol. % and Si-doped with [Al] = 15-20 mol. %), degenerately semiconducting (Si-doped with [Al] ≤ 15 mol. %), or semi-insulating ([Al] ≥ 25 mol. % and/or Mg-doped). The full width at half maximum of the rocking curve was 30-50 arcsec. The crystals showed a linear but anisotropic decrease in all lattice constants and a linear increase in the optical bandgap (5.6 eV for [Al] = 30 mol. %). The room temperature electron mobility at similar free electron concentrations gradually decreases with [Al], presumably due to enhanced scattering at phonons as the result of a larger lattice distortion. In Si co-doped crystals, the scattering is enhanced by ionized impurities. Measured electron mobilities and bandgaps enabled to estimate the Baliga figure of merit for electronic devices.
  • Item
    Phase diagram studies for the growth of (Mg,Zr):SrGa12O19 crystals
    (Dordrecht [u.a.] : Springer Science + Business Media B.V., 2021) Klimm, Detlef; Szczefanowicz, Bartosz; Wolff, Nora; Bickermann, Matthias
    By differential thermal analysis, a concentration field suitable for the growth of Zr, Mg co-doped strontium hexagallate crystals was observed that corresponds well with known experimental results. It was shown that the melting point of doped crystal is ca. 60 K higher than that of undoped crystals. This higher melting points indicate hexagallate phase stabilization by Zr, Mg co-doping and increase the growth window of (Mg,Zr):SrGa12O19, compared to undoped SrGa12O19 that grows from SrO–Ga2O3 melts.
  • Item
    Electromechanical losses in carbon- and oxygen-containing bulk AlN single crystals
    (Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science, 2019) Kogut, Iurii; Hartmann, Carsten; Gamov, Ivan; Suhak, Yuriy; Schulz, Michal; Schröder, Sebastian; Wollweber, Jürgen; Dittmar, Andrea; Irmscher, Klaus; Straubinger, Thomas; Bickermann, Matthias; Fritze, Holger
    Bulk single-crystalline aluminum nitride (AlN) is potentially a key component for low-loss high-temperature piezoelectric devices. However, the incorporation of electrically active impurities and defects during growth of AlN may adversely affect the performance of piezoelectric resonators especially at high temperatures. The electrical conductivity and electromechanical losses in bulk AlN single crystals are analyzed in the temperature range of 300–1200 K with respect to various contents of growth-related impurities in them. For AlN with [O]/[C] ≤ 1, an increase of electrical conductivity due to thermal activation of charge carriers in the temperature range of 850–1200 K has been observed and was determined to be a major contribution to electromechanical losses Q−1 rising up to maximum values of about 10−3 at 1200 K. As the oxygen content in AlN increased, the magnitude and the activation energy of high-temperature electrical conductivity increased. In oxygen-dominated AlN, two major thermally activated contributions to electromechanical losses were observed, namely, the anelastic relaxations of point defects at temperatures of 400–800 K and electrical conductivity at T > 800 K.