Punam Pant

Structural characterization of two-step growth of epitaxial ZnO films on sapphire substrates at low temperatures

We have investigated two-step growth of high-quality epitaxial ZnO films, where the first layer—the buffer layer (nucleation layer template)—is grown at a low temperature (230–290 °C) to induce a smooth (two-dimensional) growth. This is followed by growth at a moderate temperature ~430 °C to form high-quality smooth ZnO layers for device structures. It was possible to reduce the growth temperature to 250–290 °C and obtain a smooth epitaxial template layer on sapphire (0 0 0 1) substrates with surface roughness less than 1 nm. After the high-temperature growth, the film surface undulations (roughness) increased to about 2 nm, but it is still quite smooth. The calculation of c and a lattice parameters by high-resolution x-ray diffraction shows that the a lattice parameter is fully relaxed at the growth temperatures but the c lattice parameter is dependent on the defect concentration in the growing film. A decoupling between a and c lattice parameters of the films is observed, which leads to abnormal Poissons ratios ranging from 0.08 to 0.54. The decoupling of the lattice parameters is analysed based on growth characteristics and the presence of strain and defects in the grown films. We present our detailed studies on the nature of epitaxy, defects and interfaces by using comprehensive x-ray diffraction and high-resolution TEM studies.

Characteristics of nucleation layer and epitaxy in GaN/sapphire heterostructures

We present the details of GaN nucleation layer grown on (0001) sapphire substrates below 600°C by metal organic chemical vapor deposition. These films have cubic (c-GaN) zinc blende structure which starts to transform into a hexagonal (h-GaN) wurtzite structure upon annealing around 650°C and above. The films deposited above 700°C by pulsed laser deposition directly on sapphire substrate showed the wurtzite structure. Both c-GaN and h-GaN films grow epitaxially on (0001) sapphire substrates via domain matching epitaxy, where integral multiples of planes match across the film-substrate interface. The c-GaN has the following epitaxial relationship: ⟨111⟩c-GaN‖⟨0001⟩sap, ⟨110⟩c-GaN‖⟨10-10⟩sap, and ⟨211⟩c-GaN‖⟨−2110⟩sap. In terms of planar matching, (220) planes of c-GaN match with (30-30) planes of sapphire, and 1∕3(4¯2¯2¯) planes of c-GaN match with (−2110) planes of sapphire in the perpendicular direction. The transformation from c-GaN into h-GaN involves the transformation of (220) planes of c-GaN into (−...

Growth of biepitaxial zinc oxide thin films on silicon (100) using yttria-stabilized zirconia buffer layer

In this work, an approach for integrating zinc oxide thin films with Si(100) substrates using an epitaxial tetragonal yttria-stabilized zirconia buffer layer is reported. Selected area electron diffraction measurements revealed the following epitaxial relationship: [110]YSZ∥[100]Si and (001)YSZ∥(001)Si. X-ray diffraction studies demonstrated that subsequent growth of the zinc oxide thin film on the yttria-stabilized zirconia buffer layer occurred with the following epitaxial relationship: (0002)ZnO∥(001)YSZ. The full width at half maximum value for the (0002) peak of zinc oxide was small (∼0.16°), which indicated good crystalline quality. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that the zinc oxide thin film grew epitaxially on an yttria-stabilized zirconia buffer layer in two different orientations, where one orientation was rotated by 30° from the other. The orientation relationship in this case was [101¯0]ZnO∥[100]YSZ or [21¯1¯0]ZnO∥[100]YSZ and (0002)ZnO∥(001)YSZ. The biepitaxial growth of the zinc o...

Atomic structure of misfit dislocations in nonpolar ZnO/Al2O3 heterostructures

Understanding dislocation core structures at the atomic level is of significant theoretical and technological importance because of the role dislocations play in the electronic/optical properties of materials. In this paper, we report our aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy study on misfit dislocation core structures at non-polar (112¯0)ZnO/(11¯02)Al2O3 (a-ZnO/r-Al2O3) interface. The atomic configuration of the core structure is found to be closely related to the preferred interfacial bonding configuration. A significant number of these misfit dislocations have undergone a core structure modification involving the incorporation of Zn in the Al2O3 side of the dislocation.

Comparative Raman and HRTEM study of nanostructured GaN nucleation layers and device layers on sapphire (0001).

Raman spectroscopy in conjunction with high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) has been used to study structural characteristics and strain distribution of the nanostructured GaN nucleation layer (NL) and the GaN device layer on (0001) sapphire substrates used for light-emitting diodes and lasers. Raman peaks corresponding to the cubic and the hexagonal phase of GaN are observed in the Raman spectrum from 15 nm and 45 nm NLs. A comparison of the peak intensities for the cubic and hexagonal phases of GaN in the NLs suggests that the cubic phase is dominant in the 15 nm NL and the hexagonal phase in the 45 nm NL. An increase in the density of stacking faults in the metastable cubic GaN (c-GaN) phase with increasing growth time lowers the system energy as well as locally converts c-GaN phase into hexagonal GaN (h-GaN). It also explains the observation of the more intense peaks of h-GaN in the 45 nm NL compared to c-GaN peaks. For the sample wherein an h-GaN device layer was grown at higher temperatures on the NL, narrow Raman peaks corresponding to only h-GaN were observed, confirming the high-quality of the films. The peak shift of the E2(H)(LO) mode of h-GaN in the NLs and the h-GaN film suggests the presence of a tensile stress in the NL which is attributed to defects such as stacking faults and twins, and a compressive stress in high-temperature grown h-GaN film which is attributed to the thermal-expansion mismatch between the film and the substrate. The peak shifts of the substrate also reveal that during the low temperature growth of the NL the substrate is under a compressive stress which is attributed to defects in the NL and during the high temperature growth of the device layer, there is a tensile strain in the substrate as expected from differences in coefficients of thermal expansion of the film and the substrate during the cooling cycle.