Luminescent properties of GaN-based epitaxial layers and heterostructures grown on porous SiC substrates

The photoluminescence of single epitaxial GaN layers and electroluminescence of double GaN/AlGaN heterostructures grown on porous silicon carbide (PSC) substrates was studied in comparison to the properties of analogous layers and structures grown on nonporous SiC substrates. The epilayers grown on PSC substrates are characterized by a lower concentration of dislocation-related nonradiative recombination centers. It is suggested that this factor favorably influences the radiative recombination processes in device structures based on group III nitride epilayers grown on PSC substrates.     

Calculation of residual thermal stress in GaN epitaxial layers grown on technologically important substrates

A detailed investigation of residual thermal stress and misfit strain in GaN epitaxial layers grown on technologically important substrates is performed. The thermal stress is low when GaN is grown on AlN, SiC and Si, and relatively higher when Al₂O₃ substrate is used. The stress is compressive for AlN and Al₂O₃ and tensile for Si and SiC substrates. Residual thermal stress analysis was also performed for three layer heterostructures of GaN/AlN/6H-SiC and GaN/AlN/Al₂O₃. The stress remains the same when a sapphire substrate is used with or without an AlN buffer layer but reduces by an order of magnitude when a 6H-SiC substrate is used with an AlN buffer layer.     

Electron diffraction from periodic arrays of misfit dislocations formed during epitaxial growth

Changes in transmission electron diffraction patterns were examined during the epitaxial growth of copper and palladium on (111) gold substrates. Bicrystal patterns contain discrete reflections which can be explained by diffraction from uniformly strained deposit and substrate layers or by double diffraction between these two layers. Extra reflections are also observed, which vary markedly in intensity with increasing deposit thickness. It is shown that the extra reflections may be ascribed to periodic arrays of perfect edge misfit dislocations which are observed directly in both Cu/(111)Au and Pd/(111)Au films. The interpretation of these results is discussed and their significance for more general studies of epitaxial growth is briefly considered.     

Tilted-wing-induced stress distribution in epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN

Epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) is one of the most extensively studied techniques used to improve the mismatched heteroepitaxy of GaN on sapphire (-Al₂O₃) substrates. In this method, a mask is first deposited over the GaN seed layer and parallel windows are opened along a specific direction in the mask. GaN is grown vertically at the window position and then grows laterally along the mask surface (wing region). The adjacent GaN regions will coalesce to form a continuous film if enough growth time is used. The impact of the ELO of GaN on sapphire substrates using a SiO₂ mask is measured with the white beam synchrotron X-ray topography technique. The topography results show that the crystal planes in the laterally overgrown regions (wings) are tilted. The maximum wing tilt is about 0.36° at a fill factor of 0.5 (fill factor measures the window width relative to the window width plus SiO₂ mask width). High-resolution micro-Raman spectroscopy stress-mapping measurements, using Ar⁺ 488-nm laser excitation, indicate that the GaN epilayer is under compressive stress, as is expected from the growth conditions. The measured average compressive stress is about 460 MPa. Furthermore, a wave-like stress field is observed in the ELO GaN epilayer. The wave valley (low compressive stress region) is usually located at the coalesced region between two adjacent wings. In general, these coalesced regions exhibit about 60 MPa lower compressive stress than the average stress in the ELO epilayer. Voids formed by the tilted wings at the coalesced region are regarded as a possible reason for the lower compressive stress in the coalesced region.     

Growth of cubic GaN by molecular-beam epitaxy on porous GaAs substrates

It is shown that GaN layers can be grown on (100)-and (111)-oriented porous single-crystal GaAs substrates by molecular-beam epitaxy with plasma activation of the nitrogen by an rf electron cyclotron resonance discharge. The resulting undoped epitaxial layers possessed ntype conductivity with a carrier concentration ∼10¹⁸. Data obtained by scanning electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence indicate that at thicknesses ∼2000 Å, continuous layers of the cubic GaN modification are obtained regardless of the substrate orientation. Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 25, 3–9 (January 12, 1999)     

The growth of epitaxial ZnSe upon germanium substrates

This paper reports the growth conditions controlling the deposition by vacuum evaporation of epitaxial layers of n-type zinc selenide upon oriented p-type germanium substrates. The study has been performed in both conventional and ultra-high vacuum systems, with the growth proceeding from the vapour phase. The degree of ordering, growth rate and surface morphology of the zinc selenide layers has been systematically investigated as a function of the orientation and temperature of the germanium substrate and of the degree of residual vacuum in which the growth occurs. The influence that the source has in controlling epitaxy has also been observed. The growth techniques utilized in these studies are reported in detail and the underlying mechanisms controlling the growth process of ordered epitaxial layers are discussed.     

Lateral epitaxial overgrowth of GaN films on patterned sapphire substrates fabricated by wet chemical etching

A promising technique of lateral epitaxial overgrowth, namely CantiBridge epitaxy, is developed and demonstrated in order to reduce the threading dislocation density in GaN films. Using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, the GaN films are grown on patterned sapphire fabricated by wet chemical etching, instead of traditional dry etching. The image of atomic force microscopy shows that the threading dislocations in CantiBridge-epitaxy GaN are reduced sharply, which makes a promising to realize the high-performance GaN-based optoelectronic devices.     

Characterization of GaN epitaxial layers on SiC substrates with AlxGa1−xN buffer layers

High quality GaN epitaxial layers were obtained with Al_xGa_1−xN buffer layers on 6H–SiC substrates. The low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) method was used. The 500 Å thick buffer layers of Al_xGa_1−xN (0≤x≤1) were deposited on SiC substrates at 1025°C. The FWHM of GaN (0004) X-ray curves are 2–3 arcmin, which vary with the Al content in Al_xGa_1−xN buffer layers. An optimum Al content is found to be 0.18. The best GaN epitaxial film has the mobility and carrier concentration about 564 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and 1.6×10¹⁷ cm⁻³ at 300 K. The splitting diffraction angle between GaN and Al_xGa_1−xN were also analyzed from X-ray diffraction curves.     

Long spin relaxation times in wafer scale epitaxial graphene on SiC(0001)

We developed an easy, upscalable process to prepare lateral spin-valve devices on epitaxially grown monolayer graphene on SiC(0001) and perform nonlocal spin transport measurements. We observe the longest spin relaxation times τ(S) in monolayer graphene, while the spin diffusion coefficient D(S) is strongly reduced compared to typical results on exfoliated graphene. The increase of τ(S) is probably related to the changed substrate, while the cause for the small value of D(S) remains an open question.     

ZnO nanostructures grown on epitaxial GaN

Presented is the growth of zinc oxide nanorod/nanowire arrays on gallium nitride epitaxial layers. A hierarchical zinc oxide morphology comprising of different scale zinc oxide nanostructures was observed. The first tier of the surface comprised of typical zinc oxide nanorods, with most bridging to adjacent nanorods. While the second tier comprised of smaller zinc oxide nanowires approximately 30 nm in width often growing atop the aforementioned bridges. Samples were analysed via scanning electron microscopy, as well as, cross-sectional and high resolution transmission electron microscopy to elucidate the detailed growth and structural elements of the heterostructure.     

Investigation of the growth characteristics of epitaxial GaN layers on sapphire by microcathodoluminescence

A study was made of the growth regimes of undoped epitaxial GaN layers under various substrate nitriding conditions. It was observed that at a nitriding temperature of ∼1000 °C films are formed with typical growth characteristics in the form of hexagonal pyramids separated by a smoothed surface. The cathodoluminescence pattern in the pyramids revealed a fine structure in which a region of donor-acceptor recombination could be identified. The formation of acceptor levels in this region was attributed to intrinsic structural defects in the GaN layers with unsaturated (broken) bonds. The presence of a donor-acceptor recombination line in mirror-smooth epitaxial films may indicate that these films contain this type of structural defect. Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 25, 9–17 (April 12, 1999)     

Improvements of epitaxial quality and stress state of GaN grown on SiC by in situ SiN<Subscript>x</Subscript> interlayer

In this study, 4.5 μm thick GaN films with graded Al_xGa_1?xN/AlN buffer and SiN_x interlayer were prepared on 6H–SiC substrates by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. To determine the effects of SiN_x interlayer on epitaxial quality and stress state of GaN films, a series of comparative experiments were carried out by changing the deposition time and the insert location of SiN_x interlayer. By optimizing growth conditions of SiN_x interlayer, the full width at half maximum values of \( (0002) \) and \( (10\bar{1}2) \) rocking curves of GaN films were improved to 142 and 170 arcsec, respectively. A crack-free GaN film with a small root-mean-squared roughness of 0.21 ± 0.02 nm was achieved. Simultaneously, the reduction in threading dislocation density of GaN films was confirmed by using wet etching method. In addition, stress values in GaN films were investigated by Raman and low-temperature photoluminescence spectra, which indicated that the lower tensile stress in GaN film, the higher the film’s crystallinity.     

Growth of GaN on SiC/Si substrates using AlN buffer layer by hot-mesh CVD

GaN films were grown on SiC/Si (111) substrates by hot-mesh chemical vapor deposition (CVD) using ammonia (NH₃) and trimetylgallium (TMG) under low V/III source gas ratio (NH₃/TMG = 80). The SiC layer was grown by a carbonization process on the Si substrates using propane (C₃H₈). The AlN layer was deposited as a buffer layer using NH₃ and trimetylaluminum (TMA). GaN films were formed and grown by the reaction between NH_x radicals, generated on a tungsten hot mesh, and the TMG molecules. The GaN films with the AlN buffer layer showed better crystallinity and stronger near-band-edge emission compared to those without the AlN layer.     

Influence of AlN buffer layer thickness and deposition methods on GaN epitaxial growth

A gallium nitride (GaN) epitaxial layer was grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on Si (111) substrates with aluminum nitride (AlN) buffer layers at various thicknesses. The AlN buffer layers were deposited by two methods: radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering and MOCVD. The effect of the AlN deposition method and layer thickness on the morphological, structural and optical properties of the GaN layers was investigated. Field emission scanning electron microscopy showed that GaN did not coalesce on the sputtered AlN buffer layer. On the other hand, it coalesced with a single domain on the MOCVD-grown AlN buffer layer. Structural and optical analyses indicated that GaN on the MOCVD-grown AlN buffer layer had fewer defects and a better aligned lattice to the a- and c-axes than GaN on the sputtered AlN buffer layer.     

新型硅基GaN外延材料的热应力模拟

采用有限元方法，通过ANSYS软件模拟了体硅衬底上和SOI衬底上生长的GaN外延膜从1100℃的生长温度降到20℃的热应力变化情况。模拟结果表明SOI衬底作为一种柔性衬底，能有效减少异质外延的晶格失配，但是单从热失配的角度，由于引入了热膨胀系数（CET）更小的埋层SiO2，SOI衬底会使得外延层热应力略有增大。为了降低外延层中的热应力，我们结合微机电系统（MEMS）的制造工艺，用深反应离子刻蚀（DRIE）的方法，借助于SOI材料自停止刻蚀的优势，将衬底硅和埋氧去除，使得SOI的超薄顶层硅部分悬空，形成一种新型的SOI衬底。模拟结果表明，这种新型SOI衬底可以将GaN外延层中的热应力降低20％左右。     

SOI基GaN生长中热应力的模拟计算分析

通过分析SOI基GaN生长的机制,结合热膨胀系数不同而产生应力的原理,利用弹性力学原理,我们对已有的计算多层结构应力的模型进行了简化修改,得到了能够方便的计算SOI基GaN生长过程中的热应力分布的模型.对具体样品的模拟计算表明,GaN层中张应力的值约为0.5GPa,曲率半径为9.1m.SOI结构中SiO2埋层以及顶层硅厚度变化对GaN层的热应力影响很小,但是对SOI自身各层中应力影响较大.通过合理简化模型,我们分析了蓝宝石基以及SiC基GaN生长中的热应力的分布问题.     

Study of the integrated growth of dielectric films on GaN semiconductor substrates

Typical perovskite oxides SrTiO? (STO) and PbZr?.??Ti?.??O? (PZT) were fabricated on GaN semiconductor substrates by pulsed laser deposition. STO and PZT films were deposited on bare GaN, TiO?, and MgO-buffered GaN. The effects of TiO? and MgO buffer-layers on the orientations and electric properties of the perovskite films were systematically studied. The crystalline properties were in situ monitored by reflective high energy electron diffraction and ex situ characterized by X-ray diffraction. It was found that the epitaxial temperature of STO and PZT was reduced by inserting a buffer layer. (111)-oriented films were obtained on bare and TiO?-buffered GaN. However, the orientations of the perovskite films were changed to be (110) when deposited on MgO buffer layer. Furthermore, PZT films deposited on MgO- and TiO?-buffered GaN show better electric performance compared with these films directly deposited on GaN. These results show that perovskite oxide could be epitaxially grown on GaN semiconductor substrates by inserting a proper buffer layer.     

Collective effects in the system of structural defects in homoepitaxial GaN grown on porous substrates

Results of experiments on the homoepitaxial growth of gallium nitride (GaN) on porous GaN substrates with nanostructured volume are reported. A mechanism that can be used to exclude the dislocations of substrate from the sources of threading dislocations in homoepitaxial layers is described for the first time.     

Improved quality of GaN epilayer grown on porous SiC substrate by in situ H2 pre-treatment

GaN epilayers were grown on the Si-terminated (0001) 6H-SiC substrates pre-treated by in situ H₂ in metal organic chemical vapor deposition system. It was found that in situ H₂ treatment brought a porous SiC surface. The influence of H₂ pre-treatment conditions on SiC surface was carefully investigated. Moreover, our experiment demonstrated that the H₂ pre-treatment can distinctly influence the GaN basic characteristics.