Some new fundamental properties of GaN single-crystal films on SiC and sapphire substrates

Il Nuovo Cimento D - The reflectance spectra of GaN/6H-SiC, films and the absorption spectra of GaN/Al2O3 films were studied and several fundumental parameters of GaN-energy positions of exciton,...     

Structural and optical characterization of GaN heteroepitaxial films on SiC substrates

We have estimated the threading dislocation density and type via X-ray diffraction and Williamson-Hall analysis to elicit qualitative information directly related to the electrical and optical quality of GaN epitaxial layers grown by PAMBE on 4H- and 6H-SiC substrates. The substrate surface preparation and buffer choice, specifically: Ga flashing for SiC oxide removal, controlled nitridation of SiC, and use of AlN buffer layers all impact the resultant screw dislocation density, but do not significantly influence the edge dislocation density. We show that modification of the substrate surface strongly affects the screw dislocation density, presumably due to impact on nucleation during the initial stages of heteroepitaxy.     

Epitaxial GaN films deposited on sapphire substrates prepared by the sol-gel method

Thin films of GaN have been successfully deposited on Al₂O₃ (0001) substrates by the sol-gel technique. The method, in addition to being is simple and cost-effective, results in epitaxial films. The films have been characterized by photoluminescence spectroscopy.     

斜切蓝宝石衬底MOCVD生长GaN薄膜的透射电镜研究

利用MOCVD技术在斜切角度为0.3°的c面蓝宝石衬底上生长了非故意掺杂 GaN 薄膜, 并采用透射电子显微镜对材料的质量和材料内部缺陷进行了分析. 研究发现斜切蓝宝石衬底上外延的GaN材料中,位错在距离衬底0.8 μm附近大量湮灭, 同时位错扎堆出现.基于上述现象, 提出了斜切衬底上GaN材料中位错的湮灭机制, 解释了斜切衬底能够提高GaN晶体质量的原因.     

Analysis of GaN epilayers on sapphire substrates with GaN and AlN sublayers

The features and results of X-ray diffraction analysis of GaN films are presented. The films are grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy on c-plane sapphire substrates using GaN or AlN nucleation layers deposited at a low temperature. Measurements of the twist angle and concentrations of Al _x Ga_1-x N solid solutions are discussed in detail.     

Structural and morphological properties of ultrathin YBCO films grown on single-crystal substrates

Summary Epitaxial (001)-oriented ultrathin YBCO films of different thicknesses are deposited by Inverted Cylindrical Magnetron Sputtering (ICMS) on (100) MgO single-crystal substrates. The mean films stoichiometry is determined by Rutherford Backscattering (RBS). Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (XPS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) are employed in order to analyse film growth, and identify spurious phases present in the samples. Paper presented at the ?VII Congresso SATT?, Torino, 4–7 October 1994.     

Nanoindentation characterization of GaN epilayers on A-plane sapphire substrates

Gallium nitride (GaN) epilayers was deposited on a-axis sapphire substrate by means of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method. The GaN epilayers has been investigated in their repetition pressure-induced impairment events from nanoindentation technique and, the relative deformation effect was observed from atomic force microscopy (AFM). From the morphological studies, it is revealed that none of crack and particle was found even after the indentation beyond the critical depth on the residual indentation impression. The ‘pop-in’ event was explained by the interaction of the deformed region, produced by the indenter tip, with the inner threading dislocations in the GaN films. Pop-in events indicate the generation and motion of individual dislocation, which is measured under critical depth and, no residual deformation of the GaN films is observed.     

The effects of vicinal sapphire substrates on the properties of AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on vicinal sapphire substrates and just-oriented sapphire substrates (0001) are grown by the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition method. Samples are studied by high-resolution x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, capacitance--voltage measurement and the Van der Pauw Hall-effect technique. The investigation reveals that better crystal quality and surface morphology of the sample are obtained on the vicinal substrate. Furthermore, the electrical properties are also improved when the sample is grown on the vicinal substrate. This is due to the fact that the use of vicinal substrate can promote the step-flow mode of crystal growth, so many macro-steps are formed during crystal growth, which causes a reduction of threading dislocations in the crystal and an improvement in the electrical properties of the AlGaN/GaN heterostructure.     

Preparation and properties of GaN films on Si(111) substrates

High-quality gallium nitride (GaN) films were prepared on Si(111) substrates by sputtering post-annealing-reaction technique. XRD, XPS, and SEM measurement results indicate that polycrystalline GaN with hexagonal structure was successfully prepared. Intense room- temperature photoluminescence that peaked at 354 nm of the films is observed. The bandgap of these films has a blueshift with respect to bulk GaN.     

Magnetic and optical properties of epitaxial n-type Cu-doped ZnO thin films deposited on sapphire substrates

In this paper, we report on pulsed laser deposition of n-type Cu-doped ZnO thin films on c-plane sapphire substrates at 700°C. XRD and HRTEM were employed to study the epitaxial growth relationship between the Zn_1−x Cu _x O film and sapphire substrate. Absorption measurements showed excitonic nature of the thin films and a decrease in the bandgap energy with increased Cu concentration was observed. Such as-deposited films showed room temperature ferromagnetism with Curie temperature (T _c ) at around 320 K. The moment per Cu atom decreases as the Cu concentration increases. The largest magnetic moment about 0.81μ _B /Cu atom was observed for Zn_0.95Cu_0.05O thin films. The presence of any magnetic second phase was ruled out and the ferromagnetism was attributed to Cu ions substituted directly into the ZnO lattice.     

Characterization of the N-polar GaN film grown on C-plane sapphire and misoriented C-plane sapphire substrates by MOCVD

Gallium nitride (GaN) thin film of the nitrogen polarity (N-polar) was grown on C-plane sapphire and misoriented C-plane sapphire substrates respectively by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The misorientation angle is off-axis from C-plane toward M-plane of the substrates, and the angle is 2° and 4° respectively. The nitrogen polarity was confirmed by examining the images of the scanning electron microscope before and after the wet etching in potassium hydroxide (KOH) solution. The morphology was studied by the optical microscope and atomic force microscope. The crystalline quality was characterized by the x-ray diffraction. The lateral coherence length, the tilt angle, the vertical coherence length, and the vertical lattice-strain were acquired using the pseudo-Voigt function to fit the x-ray diffraction curves and then calculating with four empirical formulae. The lateral coherence length increases with the misorientation angle, because higher step density and shorter distance between adjacent steps can lead to larger lateral coherence length. The tilt angle increases with the misorientation angle, which means that the misoriented substrate can degrade the identity of crystal orientation of the N-polar GaN film. The vertical lattice-strain decreases with the misorientation angle. The vertical coherence length does not change a lot as the misorientation angle increases and this value of all samples is close to the nominal thickness of the N-polar GaN layer. This study helps to understand the influence of the misorientation angle of misoriented C-plane sapphire on the morphology, the crystalline quality, and the microstructure of N-polar GaN films.     

Synthesis of single crystalline GaN nanoribbons on sapphire (0001) substrates

Single crystalline GaN nanoribbons were synthesized through nitriding Ga₂O₃ thin films deposited on sapphire (0001) substrates by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. The component and structure of nanoribbons were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The flat and smooth ribbon-like nanostructures are high quality single crystalline hexagonal wurtzite GaN. The thickness and width-to-thickness ratio of the grown GaN nanoribbons are in the range of 8-15 nm and ∼5-10, respectively.     

Microstructure of bulk GaN layer grown on sapphire substrates with amorphous buffer

The structure of bulk GaN layers grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by vapor-phase epitaxy has been studied by x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It is found that these layers contain grown-in and screw dislocations. The dislocation density decreases away from the interface. The effect of an amorphous buffer layer on the formation of the initial GaN layer and, thus, on the degree of perfection of gallium nitride layers is elucidated. A model of generating grown-in dislocations and the relaxation mechanism of misfit stresses are proposed.     

Comparison of resonant tunneling diodes grown on freestanding GaN substrates and sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

AlN/GaN resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) were grown separately on freestanding GaN (FS-GaN) substrates and sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). Room temperature negative differential resistance (NDR) was obtained under forward bias for the RTDs grown on FS-GaN substrates, with the peak current densities (J_p) of 175-700 kA/cm² and peak-to-valley current ratios (PVCRs) of 1.01-1.21. Two resonant peaks were also observed for some RTDs at room temperature. The effects of two types of substrates on epitaxy quality and device performance of GaN-based RTDs were firstly investigated systematically, showing that lower dislocation densities, flatter surface morphology, and steeper heterogeneous interfaces were the key factors to achieving NDR for RTDs.     

蓝宝石衬底上异质外延生长碳化硅薄膜的研究

报道了在蓝宝石(αAl2O3)衬底上采用atmosphericpressurechemicalvapor(APCVD)技术异质外延碳化硅薄膜材料的研究.通过引入ⅢⅤ族氮化物为中间的缓冲层,在C(0001)蓝宝石上成功地生长出SiC薄膜,经过四晶衍射分析,分别在3549°和7502°发现了6HSiC(0006)面和(00012)晶面族的对称衍射峰,显示SiC薄膜的晶体取向与(0001)面的衬底是相同的.扫描电子显微镜(SEM)的观察显示薄膜表面连续、光滑,不要利用二次离子质谱仪(SIMS)方法对生长膜层在纵 关键词： 碳化硅 外延生长 化学汽相淀积     

柱状与孔状图形衬底对MOVPE生长GaN体材料及LED器件的影响

在柱状图形蓝宝石衬底（PSS-p）和孔状图形蓝宝石衬底（PSS-h）上外延了GaN体材料和LED结构并进行了详细对比和分析.X射线衍射仪（XRD）和原子力显微镜（AFM）测试结果表明,PSS-h上体材料的晶体质量和表面形貌都优于PSS-p上体材料的特性,通过断面扫面电子显微镜（SEM）照片看出PSS-h上GaN的侧向生长是导致这种差异的原因.另外,基于PSS-p和PSS-h上外延的LED材料制作而成的器件结果表明,其20?mA下光功率水平相比普通蓝宝石衬底（CSS）分别提高了46%和33%.通过变温光荧光 关键词： 蓝宝石图形衬底 氮化镓 发光二极管 侧向生长     

Growth of nonpolar a-plane GaN on nano-patterned r-plane sapphire substrates

Sapphire substrates were nano-patterned by inductive coupled plasma etching process. Nonpolar a-plane GaN films were grown on planar and nano-patterned r-plane sapphire substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. The anisotropic characteristic and the crystalline quality of the a-plane GaN films were studied through XRD rocking curves. The cross section and surface morphologies of the a-plane GaN films were studied using SEM and AFM measurements, respectively. The crystal quality and surface flatness of the nonpolar a-plane GaN were greatly improved through the usage of the nano-patterned r-plane sapphire substrates.     

Comparative analysis of morphology and optical properties of GaN layers on sapphire

A comprehensive analysis of gallium nitride layers grown by the metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy technique on sapphire substrates is performed. The spectrum of photoluminescence of these layers corresponds to the width of the energy gap of gallium nitride. Comparative analysis of the layer’s surface with the interferometry, scanning electron microscopy, and atomic-force microscopy has revealed characteristic inhomogeneities on it. The deposition of a thin metal film on the surface has allowed one to identify them as the inhomogeneities of the work function and not of the surface relief.