Optical Materials 28 (2006) 415–417

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Gallium oxide films for filter and solar-blind UV detector

Zhenguo Ji *, Juan Du, Jia Fan, Wei Wang
State key Laboratory for Silicon Materials, CMSCE, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China

Received 2 October 2004; accepted 15 March 2005

Available online 1 June 2005

Abstract

Gallium oxide thin films were deposited by pulsed spray pyrolysis in air using ethanol solution of gallium trichloride as precursor.
X-ray diffraction measurements showed that monoclinic gallium oxide thin films were formed. The optical band-gap of the film
deposited on quartz substrates was 5.16 eV, and the transmittance was greater than 80% for k > 275 nm, as determined by UV–
vis absorption spectrum. Photoconductivity of Ga2O3 film with inter-digital electrodes showed a weak sensitivity to direct sun light,
while a very strong sensitivity to 254 nm UV light, which indicating possible applications of b-Ga2O3 in solar-blind UV-detection
and deep UV transparent conducting materials.
Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

PACS: 73.50.P; 42.79.P; 85.60.G; 82.30.L

Keywords: Gallium oxide; Thin films; UV detector; Solar-blind

1. Introduction pyrolysis, their structural, optical, and photoresponse

Due to the atmospheric absorption of sunlight by
ozone and oxygen, there is a so-called solar-blind UV re-
gion (240–285 nm) at the surface of the earth [1]. For
this reason, solar-blind UV detectors have been applied
in many areas, such as missile fume detection, chemical
flame sensing, electrical arcing, etc., [2]. Solar-blind UV
detectors should be sensitive only to radiation for wave-
lengths shorter than 285 nm (a band-gap greater than
4.35 eV), and be insensitive to solar radiation for wave-
lengths in the visible region [3–5].
Compared to other semiconductor materials used for
solar-blind UV detectors, such as Si, SiC, GaAlN, dia-
mond, etc., gallium oxide has several advantages [6–9].
It has a wide band-gap of about 5.16 eV, and can be
doped as a transparent electrode, etc., [10,11]. In this
paper, Ga2O3 thin films were prepared by pulsed spray
*
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: mse_jizg@dial.zju.edu.cn (Z. Ji).
characteristics were also studied.
2. Experimental
Ga2O3 thin films have been deposited on quartz sub-
strates and thermally oxidized silicon wafers by the
spray pyrolysis technique. Ethanol solution of GaCl3
was used as gallium source. The pressure of the carrier
gas was 4 kg/cm2, and the deposition was carried out
in air. Although the substrate temperature was con-
trolled by an auto-tuning PID temperature controller,
the substrate temperature decreased as the spray pyroly-
sis proceeded. For this reason, deposition was carried
out in pulsed mode by the switching of a gas valve,
which was controlled by a personal computer. The on-
time and off-time of the valve in a deposition period
were 2 and 30 s, respectively, which kept the substrate
temperature stable (±5) and high enough (700–800 °C)
during the spray pyrolysis process. The spray rate was

0925-3467/$ - see front matter Ó 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.optmat.2005.03.006
416 Z. Ji et al. / Optical Materials 28 (2006) 415–417

determined by dividing the total thickness with the total

on-time of the gas valve.
The structure of the thin films was determined using a
Rigaku Rotaflex D/max-rA diffractometer with Cu Ka
as X-ray source. A Lambda 20 spectrometer was used
to measure the optical absorption and transmission
spectra of the films. The thickness of the films was calcu-
lated, based on interference fringes in the transmission
spectra. The photoresponse of the films was measured
with a home-made measurement system using direct
sun light and a 254 nm UV lamp as the light sources.

3. Results and discussion

Fig. 1 shows X-ray diffraction pattern of the thin films

deposited on quartz at nominal substrate temperature of
800 °C. The film was determined to be monoclinic b-
Ga2O3, same as those prepared by other techniques
[12,13]. The mean grain size was 80 nm as determined Fig. 2. The optical absorption spectra of the films deposited at 800 °C.
from the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the
peaks using Debye–Scherrer equation [14].
The optical absorption and transmission spectra of
the films are shown in Figs. 2 and 3, respectively.
Ga2O3 thin films have a significant absorption at wave-
lengths less than 250 nm, near the lower edge of the
solar-blind region. The band-gap of the film fitted from
the (ahm)2
hm plot was 5.16 eV (240.3 nm). In addition,
Ga2O3 thin films are almost transparent with a transmit-
tance >80% for wavelength k > 275 nm, which is much
shorter than that of ITO (370 nm), ZnO (330 nm), and
other TC materials. Thus, it is also possible to use
Ga2O3 thin films as both solar-blind UV detectors and
UV–vis transparent conducting materials.

Fig. 3. Transmission spectra of Ga2O3 thin films deposited at 800 °C.

The thickness of Ga2O3 thin films can be determined

Fig. 1. X-ray diffraction patterns of the film deposited at 800 °C.
from the oscillations of the transmission spectrum based
on the optical interference [15], i.e.,
k1 k2
d¼ ð1Þ
2ðn2 k1
n1 k2 Þ
where d is the thickness of the film, k1 and k2 are wave-
lengths corresponding to two consecutive maximums,
and n1 and n2 are the refractive indexes of the film at
k1 and k2. The thickness of Ga2O3 thin films is deter-
mined to be 220 nm according to the data in Fig. 3
and formula (1), corresponding to a deposition rate of
 Z. Ji et al. / Optical Materials 28 (2006) 415–417
Fig. 4. Photoresponse of the Ga2O3 thin film. (s): illuminated by sun
light, (d): illuminated by a 254 nm UV lamp at a distance of 1 m.
8 nm/s, a very high deposition rate compared to other
thin film fabrication method, such as CVD.
The ultraviolet photoresponse was obtained by
measuring the resistance of a prototype device by mak-
ing a ten-pair inter-digital electrode (spacing = 75 lm,
length = 8 mm). The dark resistance of the device was
about 12 kX. The photoresponse results are shown in
Fig. 4. The device is not sensitive to the direct sun light
illumination (k > 285 nm or so), while it is very sensitive
to the 254 nm UV light from a UV lamp. We expect that
such a merit will make it useful for solar-blind UV-
detectors.
4. Conclusions
Solar-blind UV sensitive gallium oxide thin films were
deposited by spray pyrolysis technique. The prepared
417
Ga2O3 thin films showed a transmittance >80% for
k > 275 nm. The optical band-gap of b-Ga2O3 deposited
at nominal substrate temperature of 800 °C was 5.16 eV.
The film showed very weak sun light sensitivity but
very strong sensitivity for 254 nm illumination. ItÕs
expected that such properties will make Ga2O3 thin films
a promising material for applications such as filter
and solar-blind UV detectors, deep UV–vis transparent
conducting materials, etc.
Acknowledgement
Supported by SFMSBR (no. G2000683-06), NNSF
(no. 90201038), and no. 2003AA-3-A19 of 863 project.
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