Intrinsic property of defective β-Ga2O3 to self-heal under ionizing irradiation

Abstract

Damage evolution and phase stability in defective β-Ga₂O₃ and an irradiation-converted γ-Ga₂O₃ layer have been studied under ionizing irradiation at 300 K. By exploring athermal nonequilibrium processes in β-Ga₂O₃, we succeed in identifying a self-healing mechanism that enables defect recovery, characterized by a recovery cross-section of ∼0.17 nm². Remarkably, this study further demonstrates that the crystallinity of the irradiation-converted γ-Ga₂O₃ layer improves under ionizing irradiation. More importantly, X-ray diffraction analysis reveals that the highly-strained $\gamma$ -phase transforms into a highly-crystalline structure without film disintegration, contrasting to that reported for isochronal annealing at 1000 K. The inelastic thermal spike calculations provide insights into the important effects of energy transfer to electrons in reordering the local atomic arrangement of both defective β- Ga₂O₃ and $\gamma$-Ga₂O₃. This behavior suggests a pathway for low-temperature crystallization, offering a promising strategy for fabricating ultrahigh-speed non-volatile memory devices.