Thermal Conductivity of Double Polymorph Ga2O3 Structures

TL;DR

This study investigates thermal transport in double polymorph Ga2O3 structures, revealing how their interface and orientation affect thermal conductivity, with implications for energy conversion applications.

Contribution

First measurement of thermal conductivity in double Ga2O3 polymorph structures, demonstrating interface effects and anisotropy using femtosecond laser thermoreflectance.

Findings

Gamma-Ga2O3 has isotropic thermal conductivity (~2 W/mK).

Beta-Ga2O3 shows anisotropic thermal conductivity (10-20 W/mK).

Significant conductivity difference across the interface (~10x) for specific orientations.

Abstract

Recently discovered double gamma/beta ({\gamma}/\b{eta}) polymorph Ga2O3 structures constitute a class of novel materials providing an option to modulate functional properties across interfaces without changing chemical compositions of materials, in contrast to that in conventional heterostructures. In this work, for the first time, we investigate thermal transport in such homo-interface structures as an example of their physical properties. Specifically, the cross-plane thermal conductivity (k) was measured by femtosecond laser-based time-domain thermoreflectance with MHz modulation rates, effectively obtaining depth profiles of the thermal conductivity across the {\gamma}/\b{eta}-Ga2O3 structures. In this way, the thermal conductivity of {\gamma}-Ga2O3 k=1.84{\div}2.11 W m-1K-1 was found to be independent of the initial \b{eta}-substrates orientations, in accordance with the cubic spinel structure of the {\gamma}-phase and consistently with the molecular dynamics simulation data. In its turn, the thermal conductivity of monoclinic \b{eta}-Ga2O3 showed a distinct anisotropy, with values ranging from 10 W m-1K-1 for [201] to 20 Wm-1K-1 for [010] orientations. Thus, for double {\gamma}/\b{eta} Ga2O3 polymorph structures formed on [010] \b{eta}-substrates, there is an order of magnitude difference in thermal conductivity across the {\gamma}/\b{eta} interface, which potentially can be exploited in thermal energy conversion applications.