Abstract
α-Cr2O3 is used as a buffer layer for the growth of α-Ga2O3 on sapphire for power devices. Presently, the growth of crystalline corundum-structured metal oxides layers, except for α-Cr2O3, is performed with metal acetylacetonates. This article investigates the development of a crystalline α-Cr2O3 thin films on c-plane sapphire with chromium acetylacetonate (CrAc) as precursor over a wide temperature range varying from 400 to 550 °C. The temperature range not only ensures the compatibility of the process with α-Ga2O3 technology but also satisfies the requirement that the window is large enough to adequately optimize the quality of crystalline α-Cr2O3 thin film. X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were performed to analyse the quality of the crystalline α-Cr2O3 layer. The XPS result showed that the ratio of different oxidation states of α-Cr2O3 changes with deposition temperature. An optimal deposition temperature at 500 °C with the molarity of CrAc being 0.05 M is achieved for better quality α-Cr2O3 thin film deposition. Thin film of α-Cr2O3 of thickness 530.5 nm has been deposited at optimal condition with a deposition rate of 35.37 nm/min and has a crystallite size of 31.21 nm and root mean square value of surface roughness of 0.647 nm.
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Sadullah, M., Hussain, S.M. & Ghosh, K. Mist CVD-based growth of crystalline alpha chromium oxide (α-Cr2O3) on c-plane sapphire substrate with chromium acetylacetonate as a precursor. Chem. Pap. 77, 6041–6052 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-023-02920-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11696-023-02920-2