Doped gallium oxide nanowires for photonics

Abstract

Monoclinic gallium oxide, beta-Ga_2O_3, is a transparent conducting oxide (TCO) that presents one of the widest band gaps among this family of materials. Its characteristics make it highly interesting for applications in UV - visible - IR optoelectronic and photonic devices. On the other hand, the morphology of nanowires made of this oxide presents specific advantages for light emitting nanodevices, waveguides and gas sensors. Control of doping of the nanostructures is of the utmost importance in order to tailor the behavior of these devices. In this work, the growth of the nanowires is based on the vapor-solid (VS) mechanism during thermal annealing treatment while the doping process was carried out in three different ways. In one of the cases, doping was obtained during the growth of the wires. A second method was based on thermal diffusion of the dopants after the growth of undoped nanowires, while the third method used ion implantation to introduce optically active ions into previously grown nanowires. The study of the influence of the different dopants on the luminescence properties of gallium oxide nanowires is presented. In particular, transition metals and rare earths such as Cr, Gd, Er or Eu were used as optically active dopants that allowed selection of the luminescence wavelength, spanning from the UV to the IR ranges. The benefits and drawbacks of the three different doping methods are analyzed. The waveguiding behavior of the doped nanowires has been studied by room temperature micro-photoluminescence.