Cathodoluminescence spectra were measured to determine the characteristics of luminescence bands and carrier dynamics in beta-Ga2O3 bulk single crystals. The CL emission was found to be dominated by a broad UV emission peaked at 3.40 eV, which exhibits strong quenching with increasing temperature; however, its spectral shape and energy position remain virtually unchanged. We observed a super-linear increase of CL intensity with excitation density; this kinetics of carrier recombination can be explained in terms of carrier trapping and charge transfer at Fe impurity centres. The temperature-dependent properties of this UV band are consistent with weakly bound electrons in self-trapped excitons with an activation energy of 48 +/- 10 meV. In addition to the self-trapped exciton emission, a blue luminescence (BL) band is shown to be related to a donor-like defect, which increases significantly in concentration after hydrogen plasma annealing. The point defect responsible for the BL, likely an oxygen vacancy, is strongly coupled to the lattice exhibiting a Huang-Rhys factor of ~ 7.3.
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