Electron paramagnetic resonance signatures of Co2+ and Cu2+ in β-Ga2O3

Gallium oxide (β-Ga2O3) is a wide-bandgap compound semiconductor with a bandgap of ∼4.9 eV that is currently considered promising for a wide range of applications ranging from transparent conducting electrodes to UV optoelectronic devices and power electronics. However, all of these applications require a reliable and precise control of electrical and optical properties of the material, which can be largely affected by impurities, such as transition metals commonly present during the growth. In this work, we employ electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy to obtain EPR signatures of the 3d-transition metals Co2+ and Cu2+ in β-Ga2O3 bulk crystals and powders that were unknown so far. Furthermore, we show that both Co2+ and Cu2+ preferentially reside on the octahedral gallium lattice site.Funding agencies: Linkoping University; Swedish Government Strategic Research Area in Materials Science on Functional Materials at Linkoping University [2009 00971]