P.R. Hageman

Morphological and structural characteristics of homoepitaxial GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD)

MOCVD-grown GaN on the N-polar surface of GaN substrates has been found to exhibit gross hexagonal pyramidal features (typically 10}50 lm in size depending on layer thickness). The evolution of the pyramidal defects is dominated by the growth rate of an emergent core of inversion domain (typically 100 nm in size). The inversion domains nucleate at a thin band of oxygen containing amorphous material (2}5 nm in thickness), being remnant contamination from the mechano-chemical polishing technique used to prepare the substrates prior to growth. Apart from pyramidal hillocks, the #at-topped hillocks are also formed. The arguments are presented on the association between these features and the core dislocations, which constitute the source of the growth steps. Improvement in the substrate polishing procedures allowed the e!ective elimination of these surface hillocks. ( 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of growth polarity on vacancy defect and impurity incorporation in dislocation-free GaN

We have used positron annihilation, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and photoluminescence to study the point defects in GaN grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) on GaN bulk crystals. The results show that N polar growth incorporates many more donor and acceptor type impurities and also Ga vacancies. Vacancy clusters with a positron lifetime τD=470±50ps were found near the N polar surfaces of both the HVPE GaN layers and bulk crystals.

High Quality GaN Layers on Si(111) Substrates: AlN Buffer Layer Optimisation and Insertion of a SiN Intermediate Layer

We present a study on the material properties of GaN films grown on (111) silicon substrates by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapour deposition using AlN buffer layers. This buffer layer is optimised with respect to growth temperature and time for the optical and structural properties of the GaN epilayers. The insertion of a Si x N y intermediate layer significantly increases the optical and structural properties. It results in a reduction of the D 0 X FWHM to 10 meV and in a 2.5-fold increase of its luminescence intensity. The FWHM of symmetric and asymmetric ω-scans are reduced from 832 to 669 arcsec and from 702 to 547 arcsec, respectively.

Selective photoetching and transmission electron microscopy studies of defects in heteroepitaxial GaN

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching has been used to study defects in heteroepitaxial GaN layers. In Ga-polar layers PEC etching reveals only dislocations in the form of filamentary etch features (whiskers). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed a one-to-one correspondence between the whiskers and straight threading dislocations, which are mainly of edge and mixed type. In N-polar layers, apart from dislocations, inversion domains (IDs) also give rise to the formation of more complex etch features that also have been confirmed by TEM. IDs of nanometer diameter result in formation of whiskers similar to the dislocation-related ones. However, when the diameter of IDs exceeds a critical size (about 100 nm), crater-like deep etch features are formed during PEC etching. Based on the mechanism of PEC etching of GaN in aqueous KOH solutions, it is argued that inversion domain boundaries are electrically active defects.

Exciton-related photoluminescence in homoepitaxial GaN of Ga and N polarities

A photoluminescence (PL) study of GaN homoepitaxial layers grown by metal–organic chemical-vapor deposition demonstrates the high optical quality of N-face layers deposited on vicinal (0001) GaN substrates. In contrast to broad PL emission in exact (0001) layers, narrow-bound (0.9 meV) and free- (A and B) excitonic transitions are observed. By following the PL spectra as a function of temperature and excitation power, the main optical transitions in the Ga- and the misoriented N-face layers are found to be the same. Observed differences are related to the distinct creation of donor and acceptor states in the samples of different polarities.

GaN growth on single-crystal diamond substrates by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition and hydride vapour deposition

Abstract In this study a thick hexagonal GaN layer has been grown on a (110) single crystalline diamond substrate utilising two different deposition techniques. Using an AlN nucleation layer, metal–organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) has been used to deposit an initial GaN layer on a (110) single crystal diamond substrate. The layer consists of closely packed GaN grains with a thickness of approximately 2.5 μm and with different orientations with respect to the substrate. Low temperature photoluminescence indicates a poor optical quality of the layer due to poor structural properties and/or a high incorporation of impurities. This layer was used as a template in a hydride vapour phase epitaxy (HVPE) growth experiment. As a result of this, the GaN grain size has increased enormously and the layer consists of large, hexagonal shaped pillars with a diameter of approximately 50 μm and a height of more than 100 μm protruding from a polycrystalline background having a more uniform thickness. PL spectra of this film show a strongly increased intensity of the exciton related emissions when compared to the MOCVD deposited film. X-Ray diffraction analyses revealed that the dominant orientation of the GaN crystallites perpendicular to the substrate changed from [001] for the thin MOCVD film to [112] for the HVPE layer.

Reduction of dislocation density in epitaxial GaN layers by overgrowth of defect-related etch pits

GaN templates grown by the metal organic chemical vapor deposition method were etched in a defect-selective molten salts eutectic and were subsequently overgrown by a GaN layer using the hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) method. Optimized conditions of etching and of HVPE growth processes resulted in a significant reduction of the dislocations density (DD). Local areas virtually free of dislocations were obtained on ∼50% of the surface, while the average DD was reduced from 3×109 cm−2 in the template to about 2×107 cm−2 in the HVPE-grown GaN layer. A model has been developed to explain the mechanism of reduction of the DD during the overgrowth process. The model was confirmed by the photoetching of cleaved layers.

Luminescence decay in highly excited GaN grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy

Carrier recombination dynamics in GaN grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy has been studied by means of transient photoluminescence under high photoexcitation conditions that are close to stimulated emission regime. The luminescence transient featured an exponential decay with the time constant of 205 ps at room temperature. The transient was shown to be in good agreement with a model of saturated centers of nonradiative recombination with the trap density of ∼1017 cm−3 and carrier recombination coefficients of ∼10−8 cm3/s. In such a regime, the lifetimes of electrons and holes have a common value of 410 ps.

Thick GaN layers grown by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy: hetero- versus homo-epitaxy

Abstract In this paper, an overview will be given of the growth of thick GaN layers by hydride vapor-phase epitaxy. Two different kinds of substrates were used, that is MOCVD-grown GaN templates on sapphire and GaN single crystals. The layers grown on sapphire-based substrates suffer from the problem of cracking and pit formation. Although the morphology is not mirror-like, the optical and electrical quality of the material is excellent as demonstrated by photoluminescence and Hall–Van der Pauw measurements. The layers grown on Ga-polar GaN single crystals have almost perfect morphologies with only a very low density of pits. For the N-polar substrates the morphology is very rough, exhibiting the same features as are observed for the N-face MOCVD-grown GaN layers, both on sapphire and on N-face GaN single crystals.

Improvement of the optical properties of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition grown GaN on sapphire by an in situ SiN treatment

We have studied the effect of an in situ SiN treatment of sapphire substrates on the optical properties of GaN films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The SiN deposition, partially covering the substrate, forms a mask for the formation of nanoscale auto-organized GaN islands. These islands formed upon an increase of the temperature after deposition of a GaN buffer layer on this mask. A photoluminescence study of the GaN epilayers obtained by lateral overgrowth of these islands shows significant enhancement of the luminescence emission intensity of the near band edge peaks and a reduction of the full width at half maximum of the donor bound exciton (D0X) peak by 32% down to 4 meV compared to in our standard process. The GaN films grown using SiN treatment are highly stressed as evidenced by a blueshift of 10 meV in the D0X peak energies. Photoelectrochemical etching in aqueous solution of KOH was applied to reveal the dislocation density. The density of “whisker-like” etch features, which fo...