Disorder Induced Ordering in Gallium Oxide (DIOGO)

In the first year of the project, as envisaged, we started working with polymorph heterostructures and specifically discovered phase glides and self-organization of atomically abrupt interfaces out of stochastic disorder in polymorphs as published in one of the prestigious nature-family journals (Nature Communications 16, 3245 (2025)). Now, the plan is to use this newly discovered form of self-organization to explore fuctioal properties of the polymorph heterostructures, undertaking a systematic effort to understand the nature of the disorder-induced crystallization instead of amorphization, paving the way for the utilization of the “disorder-engineered” structures.

We aim to understand the nature of the disorder-induced crystallization instead of amorphization in Ga2O3, accompanied with formation of self-organized polymorph interfaces, potentially paving the way for functionalization of these new semiconductor structures. We start from our own set of preliminary data: (i) observation of ion irradiation induced ß-to-? polymorph transformation in Ga2O3, (ii) finding that ?/ß Ga2O3 interfaces fabricated by such processing exhibit very low lattice mismatch and (iii) discovery that as soon as ?-Ga2O3 forms, it demonstrates unprecedently high radiation tolerance. Starting from there, our objective is twofold. Firstly, we want to understand the fundamental mechanisms behind (i-iii) phenomena and gain a full control over the polymorph transformations. For that matter we propose to use an arsenal of methods available within NorFab/NORTEM research infrastructures in Norway, reinforced by using international large-scale infrastructures and receiving inputs via collaborations. Secondly, we plan to apply our fundamental findings to improve radiation tolerant and power electronics devices. This part of work is plausible because consistently with our preliminary device simulations there is a significant performance gain if including ?/ß Ga2O3 interfaces into the power device designs. Moreover, the device development is feasible, because we already made an initial demonstration of simplified, but operating ?/ß Ga2O3 diodes, shown to remain functionable when reference devices failed in the radiation tests. Thus, our objectives are credible making the project ambitious, novel, and cross-disciplinary, with very positive expected impacts.