A simple and fast method for the fabrication of p-type β-Ga2O3 by electrochemical oxidation method with DFT interpretation

Abstract In this work, a simple electrochemical oxidation method has been used to prepare p-type β -Ga 2 O 3 nanoparticles. This method overcomes the problem of doping high energy gap semiconductors to form p-type. The electron holes of β -Ga 2 O 3 were caused by oxygen vacancy (Vo) and showed the shorter lattice constant and preferred orientation in XRD analysis. The peak area of oxygen vacancy also reflects a higher ratio than n-type Ga 2 O 3 in x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The adsorption of reducing gas (CO, CH 4 , and H 2 ) enhanced the resistance of the β -Ga 2 O 3 confirming the p-type character of NPs. The DFT calculations showed that oxygen vacancy leads to higher energy of the Fermi level and is near the valence band. The binding energy of Ga 2 O 3 and after interaction with gas molecular was also calculated which is analogous to our experimental data.