Chemical Bath Deposition of α-GaOOH with Tunable Morphology on Silicon Using the pH Adjustment

The growth of GaOOH by chemical bath deposition has received great attention over the past years as a first step to form Ga₂O₃ with the α- or β-phases by combining a wet chemical route with thermal annealing in air. By using gallium nitrate and sodium hydroxide in aqueous solution, we show that the structural morphology of GaOOH deposits is thoroughly tunable in terms of both dimensions, density, and nature by varying the initial pH value from acidic to basic conditions. In the low-pH region associated with a low supersaturation level and where Ga³⁺ ions represent the dominant Ga(III) species, GaOOH microrods with a low aspect ratio and low density prevail. In the intermediate-pH region associated with a high supersaturation level and where GaOH²⁺ ions represent the dominant Ga(III) species, GaOOH prismatic nanorods with a high aspect ratio and high density are preferentially formed. In the high-pH region where Ga(OH)₄^- complexes are predominantly formed, the growth of partially crystallized GaOOH thin films with a typical thickness of about 1 μm proceeds. These findings show the correlation between the characteristics of the chemical bath and the resulting structural morphology of GaOOH deposits. They further open great perspectives to grow GaOOH and hence Ga₂O₃-based materials on silicon with a dedicated structural morphology using chemical bath deposition for engineering devices in the fields of gas sensing, solar-blind UV-C photodetection, and power electronics.