Effective uniaxial dielectric function tensor and optical phonons in ($\bar{2}01$)-plane oriented $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ films with equally-distributed six-fold rotation domains
Monoclinic $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$ films grown on $c$-plane sapphire have been shown to exhibit six $(\bar{2}01)$-plane oriented domains, which are equally-spaced-by-rotation around the surface normal and equally-sized-by-volume that render the film optical response effectively uniaxial. We derive and discuss an optical model suitable for ellipsometry data analysis of such films. We model mid- and far-infrared ellipsometry data from undoped and electrically insulating films with an effective uniaxial dielectric tensor based on projections of all phonon modes within the rotation domains parallel and perpendicular to the sample normal, i.e., to the reciprocal lattice vector $\mathbf{g}_{\bar{2}01}$. Two effective response functions are described by model, and found sufficient to calculate ellipsometry data that best-match measured ellipsometry data from a representative film. We propose to render either effective dielectric functions, or inverse effective dielectric functions, each separately for electric field directions parallel and perpendicular to $\mathbf{g}_{\bar{2}01}$, by sums of Lorentz oscillators, which permit to determine either sets of transverse optical phonon mode parameters, or sets of longitudinal optical phonon mode parameters, respectively. Transverse optical modes common to both dielectric functions can be traced back to single crystal modes with $B_{\mathrm{u}}$ character, while modes with $A_{\mathrm{u}}$ character only appear within the dielectric function for polarization perpendicular to the sample surface. The thereby obtained parameter sets reveal all phonon modes anticipated from averaging over the six-fold rotation domains of single crystal $β$-Ga$_2$O$_3$, but with slightly shifted transverse optical, and completely different longitudinal optical phonon modes.