A. M. Roskowski

Gallium nitride materials - progress, status, and potential roadblocks

Metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are the principal techniques for the growth and n-type (Si) and p-type (Mg) doping of III-nitride thin films on sapphire and silicon carbide substrates as well as previously grown GaN films. Lateral and pendeoepitaxy via MOVPE reduce significantly the dislocation density and residual strain in GaN and AlGaN films. However tilt and coalescence boundaries are produced in the laterally growing material. Very high electron mobilities in the nitrides have been realized in radio-frequency plasma-assisted MBE GaN films and in two-dimensional electron gases in the AlGaN/GaN system grown on MOVPE-derived GaN substrates at the crossover from the intermediate growth regime to the droplet regime. State-of-the-art Mg doping profiles and transport properties have been achieved in MBE-derived p-type GaN. The Mg-memory effect, and heterogeneous growth, substrate uniformity, and flux control are significant challenges for MOVPE and MBE, respectively. Photoluminescence (PL) of MOVPE-derived unintentionally doped (UID) heteroepitaxial GaN films show sharp lines near 3.478 eV due to recombination processes associated with the annihilation of free-excitons (FEs) and excitons bound to a neutral shallow donor (D/spl deg/X).

Pd growth and subsequent Schottky barrier formation on chemical vapor cleaned p-type GaN surfaces

Characterization of chemical vapor cleaned, Mg-doped, p-type GaN(0001) surfaces and Pd contacts sequentially deposited on these surfaces has been conducted using x-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopies and low-energy electron diffraction. The band bending and the electron affinity at the cleaned p-GaN surface were 1.4±0.1 eV and 3.1±0.1 eV, respectively. A previously unidentified band of surface states was observed at ∼1.0 eV below the Fermi level on this surface. The Pd grew epitaxially on the cleaned surface in a layer-by-layer mode and formed an abrupt, unreacted metal–semiconductor interface. The induced Fermi level movement with Pd deposition has been attributed to a complex interaction between extrinsic and intrinsic surface states as well as metal induced gap states. The final Schottky barrier height at the Pd/p-GaN interface was 1.3±0.1 eV; the interface dipole contribution was 0.4±0.1 eV.

Strain and crystallographic tilt in uncoalesced GaN layers grown by maskless pendeoepitaxy

The strain in thin GaN layers grown by maskless pendeoepitaxy has been investigated using high-resolution x-ray diffraction and finite-element simulations. The crystallographic tilt of the free-hanging wings was determined to result from the strain relaxation of the seed stripes along [0001]. The impact of the dimensions of the pendeostructure and of the formation of crystal defects on the expected wing tilt is discussed.

Chemical, electrical, and structural properties of Ni/Au contacts on chemical vapor cleaned p-type GaN

Chemical vapor cleaned, Mg-doped, p-type GaN(0001) surfaces and Ni/Au contacts deposited on these surfaces have been studied using several characterization techniques. Stoichiometric surfaces without detectable carbon and an 87% reduction in the surface oxygen to 2±1 at. % were achieved. The binding energies of the Ga 3d and N 1s core level photoelectron peaks were reduced by 0.5±0.1 eV following the chemical vapor clean. The band bending at the clean surface was measured to be 0.8±0.1 eV. As-deposited Ni/Au contacts on chemical vapor cleaned surfaces exhibited significantly less rectification in the low voltage region (<2 V) compared to identical contact structures on conventional HCl treated surfaces. The specific contact resistance of these contacts deposited on chemical vapor cleaned surfaces and subsequently annealed at 450 °C for 30 seconds was 3±2 Ω cm2. Improved ohmic behavior and a specific contact resistance of 4±2 Ω cm2 was obtained for contacts deposited on HCl treated surfaces and annealed us...

Investigations regarding the maskless pendeo-epitaxial growth of GaN films prior to coalescence

Pendeo-epitaxy employs lateral growth from etched seed forms to achieve a marked reduction in dislocation density in a material. In this research, high-resolution X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy of GaN stripes and the laterally grown wings confirmed transmission electron microscopy results regarding the reduction in dislocations in the latter regions. Micro-Raman and X-ray diffraction measurements showed the wings to be tilted /spl les/0.15/spl deg/ due to tensile stresses in the stripes induced primarily by the mismatch in the coefficients of thermal expansion between the GaN stripe and the SiC substrate. A strong, low-temperature D/spl deg/X peak at /spl ap/3.466 eV with a FWHM of /spl les/300 /spl mu/eV was measured in the wing material by micro-photoluminescence. Films grown at 1020/spl deg/C exhibited similar vertical [0001] and lateral [112~0] growth rates. Increasing the growth temperature increased the latter due to the higher thermal stability of the (112~0) GaN and initiated growth of spiral hillocks on the (0001) surface of the stripes. The latter were due to adatom diffusion to heterogeneous steps previously nucleated at the intersections of pure screw or mixed dislocations. The (112~0) surface was atomically smooth under all growth conditions with a root mean square roughness value of 0.17 nm.

Characterization of hydrogen etched 6H–SiC(0001) substrates and subsequently grown AlN films

Wafers of n-type, 6H–SiC(0001) with (ND–NA)=(5.1–7.5)×1017 and 2.5×1018 were etched in a flowing 25%H2/75%He mixture within the range of 1500–1640 °C at 1 atm. Equilibrium thermodynamic calculations indicated that the presence of atomic hydrogen is necessary to achieve etching of SiC. Atomic force microscopy, optical microscopy, and low energy electron diffraction of the etched surface revealed a faceted surface morphology with unit cell and half unit cell high steps and a 1×1 reconstruction. The latter sample also exhibited a much larger number of hexagonal pits on the surface. Annealing the etched samples under ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) at 1030 °C for 15 min resulted in (1) a reduction of the surface oxygen and adventitious hydrocarbons below the detection limit of Auger electron spectroscopy, (2) a (√3×√3)R30° reconstructed surface and (3) a Si-to-C peak-to-peak height ratio of 1.2. By contrast, using a chemical vapor cleaning (CVC) process consisting of an exposure to 3000 Langmuir (L) of silane at 1030 ...

Cross-sectional imaging of pendeo-epitaxial GaN using continuous-wave two-photon microphotoluminescence

A technique utilizing continuous-wave two-photon absorption has been developed for optically sectioning and imaging deep into GaN structures. Imaging at depths greater than 20 μm below the surface of a coalesced pendeo-epitaxial GaN sample is demonstrated. Free and donor-bound excitonic emission in this sample appears to originate at the surface, acceptor-bound exciton transitions are strongest in the top bulk portion of the sample, and subgap luminescence is most intense deep in the sample. The depth resolution of the imaging system is measured to be 1.75 μm near the GaN surface.

Helical-type surface defects in InGaN thin films epitaxially grown on GaN templates at reduced temperatures

Abstract The surface morphologies of InGaN films grown at 780 °C by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy were determined using atomic force microscopy. A qualitative model was developed to explain the observed instabilities in the step morphology of these films, namely, the formation of hillocks and v-defects that give rise to surface roughening. V-defects, observed at a surface density greater than 2×10 8 /cm 2 , are a result of interactions between moving surface steps, cores of screw-type dislocations, and two-dimensional islands of atoms that form on the terraces during growth at high surface undercooling. A delay in the formation of v-defects in InGaN to a nominal thickness of 10 nm was observed and associated with the ammonia partial pressure and the interactions between steps associated with hillock islands and cores of screw-type dislocations. Hillock formation was attributed to a transition in the thermodynamic mode of film growth, as three-dimensional islands nucleated on the cores of screw-type dislocations at a density of 2×10 8 /cm 2 . Explanations for the foregoing observations are based on growth model theory previously developed by Burton, Cabrera and Frank and on changes in the surface kinetics with temperature, In composition, and gas phase composition.

Hot electron transport in AlN

The energy distribution of electrons that were transported through a thin intrinsic AlN film was directly measured as a function of the applied field. The measurements were realized by extracting the electrons into vacuum through a semitransparent Au contact and measuring their energies using an electron spectrometer. At moderate applied fields (100 kV/cm), the energy distribution was found to follow a Maxwellian model corresponding to a temperature of 2700 K and a drift component below the spectrometer resolution. At higher fields, intervalley scattering was evidenced by the presence of a second peak at 0.7 eV. This coincides well with the energy position of the LM valleys in AlN.

Polarization charges and polarization-induced barriers in AlxGa1−xN/GaN and InyGa1−yN/GaN heterostructures

Polarization charges are measured and the formation of large electrostatic barriers arising primarily as a consequence of the presence of polarization-induced charge densities is deduced from capacitance–voltage analysis of n-type AlxGa1−xN/GaN and InyGa1−yN/GaN heterostructures. In structures consisting of 5–10 nm AlxGa1−xN or InyGa1−yN surrounded by n-GaN, capacitance–voltage profiling studies combined with elementary electrostatic analysis yield experimental estimates of polarization charge densities, which are compared with values expected based on the combined effects of spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization. These results imply the existence of electrostatic barriers that are due primarily to the large polarization charge densities at each heterojunction interface and the resulting potential difference maintained across the thin AlxGa1−xN or InyGa1−yN layers. The electrostatic barriers formed in these structures are large in comparison to the heterojunction conduction-band offsets, demonstratin...