Temperature-dependent thermal conductivity and diffusivity of a Mg-doped insulating β-Ga₂O₃ single crystal along [100], [010] and [001]

The monoclinic crystal structure of $\beta$-$\mathrm{Ga_2O_3}$ leads to significant anisotropy of the thermal properties. The 2$\omega$-method is used to measure the thermal diffusivity $D$ in [010] and [001] direction respectively and to determine the thermal conductivity values $\lambda$ of the [100], [010] and [001] direction from the same insulating Mg doped $\beta$-$\mathrm{Ga_2O_3}$ single crystal. We detect a temperature independent anisotropy factor of both the thermal diffusivity and conductivity values of $D_{[010]}/D_{[001]}=\lambda_{[010]}/\lambda_{[001]}=1.4\pm 0.1$. The temperature-dependence is in accord with phonon-phonon-Umklapp scattering processes from 300 K down to 150 K. Below 150 K point-defect-scattering lowers the estimated phonon-phonon-Umklapp-scattering values.