Influence of Silver as a Catalyst on the Growth of β-Ga2O3 Nanowires on GaAs

Badriyah Alhalaili; Howard Mao; Daniel M Dryden; Hilal Cansizoglu; Ryan James Bunk; Ruxandra Vidu; Jerry Woodall; M Saif Islam

doi:10.3390/ma13235377

Influence of Silver as a Catalyst on the Growth of β-Ga₂O₃ Nanowires on GaAs

Materials (Basel). 2020 Nov 26;13(23):5377. doi: 10.3390/ma13235377.

Authors

Badriyah Alhalaili¹, Howard Mao¹, Daniel M Dryden^{2

3}, Hilal Cansizoglu¹, Ryan James Bunk², Ruxandra Vidu^{2

4}, Jerry Woodall², M Saif Islam²

Affiliations

¹ Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Program, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, 13109 Kuwait City, Kuwait.
² Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
³ Materials Science and Engineering, University of California at Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁴ Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, 060042 Bucharest, Romania.

Abstract

A simple and inexpensive thermal oxidation process was performed to synthesize gallium oxide (Ga₂O₃) nanowires using Ag thin film as a catalyst at 800 °C and 1000 °C to understand the effect of the silver catalyst on the nanowire growth. The effect of doping and orientation of the substrates on the growth of Ga₂O₃ nanowires on single-crystal gallium arsenide (GaAs) wafers in atmosphere were investigated. A comprehensive study of the oxide film and nanowire growth was performed using various characterization techniques including XRD, SEM, EDS, focused ion beam (FIB), XPS and STEM. Based on the characterization results, we believe that Ag thin film produces Ag nanoparticles at high temperatures and enhances the reaction between oxygen and gallium, contributing to denser and longer Ga₂O₃ nanowires compared to those grown without silver catalyst. This process can be optimized for large-scale production of high-quality, dense, and long nanowires.

Keywords: Ga2O3; GaAs; nanowires; oxidation; silver catalyst.