Defect Formation Energies of Interstitial C, Si, and Ge Impurities in β-Ga2O3

We investigate formation energies of C, Si, and Ge defects in β-Ga2O3 through hybrid functional calculations. We find that the interstitial defects of these elements generally occur at higher energies than their substitutional counterparts, while they are more stable at low Fermi energies in Ga-rich conditions. In n-type and Ga-rich conditions, interstitials of Si and Ge show significantly higher formation energies than their substitutional form, but this difference is less pronounced for C. Charge transition levels of interstitial defects lie in the upper part of the band-gap, and account for several measured levels in unintentionally doped and Ge-doped samples of β-Ga2O3.