Nanofunctional gallium oxide (Ga2O3) nanowires/nanostructures and their applications in nanodevices

A brief review on beta gallium oxide (-Ga2O3) nanowires (NWs) and nanostructures (NS) is presented in this article. -Ga2O3 is a wide-bandgap (E-g approximate to 4.9 eV) semiconductor and can be doped with n- and p-type dopants, which can lead to applications in many functional devices. Here, we will first discuss briefly the properties of -Ga2O3 in bulk form. Then we will describe the growth of -Ga2O3 NWs/NS using various techniques including thermal CVD, MOCVD and laser ablation. The present status of research in the area of nanowire growth will be highlighted in this section. Then we will describe the luminescence properties of -Ga2O3 NWs such as photoluminescence (PL) and cathodoluminescence (CL). The origin of various peaks in the PL and CL spectra of -Ga2O3 NWs/ NS will be presented, with reference to various experimental studies carried out recently. In the final section, we will describe various applications of -Ga2O3 NWs in nanodevices such as field effect transistors (FET), gas sensors and deep-UV photodetectors. Finally, we will give a conclusion and future perspective of the research in the area of this important semiconducting oxide. ((c) 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)