Split Ga vacancies: Abundant defects in β-Ga₂O₃

We have applied positron annihilation spectroscopy to study a wide range of β-Ga₂O₃bulk crystals and thin films with various doping levels. The Doppler broadening of the 511 keV positron-electron annihilation line exhibits colossal anisotropy compared to other three-dimensional crystalline semiconductors. State-of-the-art theoretical calculations of the positron characteristics in the β-Ga₂O₃lattice reveal that the positron state is effectively 1-dimensional, giving rise to strong anisotropy. Strongly relaxed split Ga vacancies are found to exhibit even stronger anisotropy and to dominate the positron annihilation signals in almost all experiments. The evidence leads to the conclusion that split Ga vacancies are abundant, with concentration of 1018 cm-3 or more, in β-Ga₂O₃samples irrespective of conductivity.