Abstract: β-Ga₂O₃, as a new generation of ultra-wide bandgap semiconductor material, has garnered increasing attention due to its exceptional physical properties and high performance in devices. Various melt crystal growth techniques, such as the floating zone method and edge-defined film-fed growth (EFG) method, can be employed for the preparation of β-Ga₂O₃. Defects often exert significant adverse effects on the performance of semiconductor devices (e.g., higher leakage currents and lower breakdown voltages), making defect detection techniques for β-Ga₂O₃ crystals particularly crucial, especially for dislocation defects within linear defects. Traditionally, etching methods were used for the detection and density calculation of dislocations, but common methods for characterizing material defects are destructive and only applicable to the research analysis of experimental samples. In this paper, X-ray topography (XRT) and acid etching were utilized to investigate β-Ga₂O₃ grown by EFG method on (001), (010), and (100) surface, demonstrating the three-dimensional distribution characteristics of dislocations. It is shown that dislocations along the b-axis [010] direction dominate, providing valuable insights into the structure and characteristics of β-Ga₂O₃ dislocations. This, in turn, offers new directions for the subsequent selection of epitaxial and device crystal orientations.

Key words: β-Ga₂O₃, wide bandgap semiconductor, dislocation, XRT, EFG method, etching method