Due to its ultra-wide band gap, the semiconductor gallium oxide is a promising candidate for potential use in power electronics. However, an industrially usable technology for the controlled production of the material is not yet in sight. This is mainly due to its abundance of possible crystal structures, which can occur simultaneously and which sometimes differ significantly from one another in terms of their properties relevant to the semiconductor industry.
This problem is now being addressed by a consortium of researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the University of Oslo and the University of Helsinki.
Building on earlier work, they have succeeded in converting the original beta-gallium oxide into kappa-gallium oxide by treating it with ion beams. One aim of the project is the large-scale production of localized nanostructures in the sub-micrometer range from kappa-gallium oxide in a surrounding matrix of beta-gallium oxide. These should enable optimized electrical, optical and thermoelectric properties.
