Growth of europium-doped gallium oxide (Ga2O3:Eu) thin films deposited by homemade DC magnetron sputtering

Abstract

Europium-doped gallium oxide (Ga2O3:Eu) thin films have successfully been grown using direct current magnetron sputtering by means of Eu concentration variation. Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy spectra indicate gallium, oxygen, and europium elements as the growing films' chemical compositions. Based on scanning electron microscopy images, the morphology of Ga2O3:Eu thin film is seemingly like a granulated nano-size configuration. In this study, UV-visible spectrophotometer results show that the variation of Eu doping concentration inflicted no change toward the optical bandgap of the growing films. The optical bandgaps of undoped Ga2O3film and Ga2O3:Eu film were seen to be relatively similar, i.e., approximately 3.4 eV. Yet, the presence of Eu doping in Ga2O3configuration had led to blueshift phenomenon when the concentration was 2% and redshift phenomenon when it was 5%. Photoluminescence emissions of all samples were observed in the red area with the emission peak between 593 and 602 nm.