Optical and Structural Properties of Aluminum Nitride Epi-Films at Room and High Temperature.

The high-quality aluminum nitride (AlN) epilayer is the key factor that directly affects the performance of semiconductor deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photoelectronic devices. In this work, to investigate the influence of thickness on the quality of the AlN epilayer, two AlN-thick epi-film samples were grown on c-plane sapphire substrates. The optical and structural characteristics of AlN films are meticulously examined by using high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), a dual-beam ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer, and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE). It has been found that the quality of AlN can be controlled by adjusting the AlN film thickness. The phenomenon, in which the thicker AlNn film exhibits lower dislocations than the thinner one, demonstrates that thick AlN epitaxial samples can work as a strain relief layer and, in the meantime, help significantly bend the dislocations and decrease total dislocation density with the thicker epi-film. The Urbach's binding energy and optical bandgap (Eg) derived by optical transmission (OT) and SE depend on crystallite size, crystalline alignment, and film thickness, which are in good agreement with XRD and SEM results. It is concluded that under the treatment of thickening film, the essence of crystal quality is improved. The bandgap energies of AlN samples obtained from SE possess larger values and higher accuracy than those extracted from OT. The Bose-Einstein relation is used to demonstrate the bandgap variation with temperature, and it is indicated that the thermal stability of bandgap energy can be improved with an increase in film thickness. It is revealed that when the thickness increases to micrometer order, the thickness has little effect on the change of Eg with temperature.

Structural, Surface and Optical Studies of m- and c-Face AlN Crystals Grown by Physical Vapor Transport Method.

Bulk aluminum nitride (AlN) crystals with different polarities were grown by physical vapor transport (PVT). The structural, surface, and optical properties of m-plane and c-plane AlN crystals were comparatively studied by using high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and Raman spectroscopy. Temperature-dependent Raman measurements showed that the Raman shift and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the E2 (high) phonon mode of the m-plane AlN crystal were larger than those of the c-plane AlN crystal, which would be correlated with the residual stress and defects in the AlN samples, respectively. Moreover, the phonon lifetime of the Raman-active modes largely decayed and its line width gradually broadened with the increase in temperature. The phonon lifetime of the Raman TO-phonon mode was changed less than that of the LO-phonon mode with temperature in the two crystals. It should be noted that the influence of inhomogeneous impurity phonon scattering on the phonon lifetime and the contribution to the Raman shift came from thermal expansion at a higher temperature. In addition, the trend of stress with increasing 1000/temperature was similar for the two AlN samples. As the temperature increased from 80 K to ~870 K, there was a temperature at which the biaxial stress of the samples transformed from compressive to tensile stress, while their certain temperature was different.

Anisotropic Strain Relaxation in Semipolar (112¯2) InGaN/GaN Superlattice Relaxed Templates.

Semipolar (112¯2) InGaN/GaN superlattice templates with different periodical InGaN layer thicknesses were grown on m-plane sapphire substrates using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The strain in the superlattice layers, the relaxation mechanism and the influence of the strain relaxation on the semipolar superlattice template were explored. The results demonstrated that the strain in the (112¯2) InGaN/GaN superlattice templates was anisotropic and increased with increasing InGaN thickness. The strain relaxation in the InGaN/GaN superlattice templates was related to the formation of one-dimension misfit dislocation arrays in the superlattice structure, which caused tilts in the superlattice layer. Whereas, the rate of increase of the strain became slower with increasing InGaN thickness and new misfit dislocations emerged, which damaged the quality of the superlattice relaxed templates. The strain relaxation in the superlattice structure improved the surface microtopography and increased the incorporation of indium in the InGaN epitaxial layers.

Anisotropically biaxial strain in non-polar (112-0) plane In x Ga1-x N/GaN layers investigated by X-ray reciprocal space mapping.

In this study, the indium composition x as well as the anisotropically biaxial strain in non-polar a-plane In x Ga1-x N on GaN is studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. In accordance with XRD reciprocal lattice space mapping, with increasing indium composition, the maximum of the In x Ga1-x N reciprocal lattice points progressively shifts from a fully compressive strained to a fully relaxed position, then to reversed tensile strained. To fully understand the strain in the ternary alloy layers, it is helpful to grow high-quality device structures using a-plane nitrides. As the layer thickness increases, the strain of In x Ga1-x N layer releases through surface roughening and the 3D growth-mode.

Growth of Well-Aligned InN Nanorods on Amorphous Glass Substrates.

The growth of well-aligned nanorods on amorphous substrates can pave the way to fabricate large-scale and low-cost devices. In this work, we successfully prepared vertically well-aligned c-axis InN nanorods on amorphous glass substrate by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The products formed directly on bare glass are randomly oriented without preferential growth direction. By inserting a GaN/Ti interlayer, the nanowire alignment can be greatly improved as indicated by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction.

The immiscibility of InAlN ternary alloy.

We have used two models based on the valence force field and the regular solution model to study the immiscibility of InAlN ternary alloy, and have got the spinodal and binodal curves of InAlN. Analyzing the spinodal decomposition curves, we obtain the appropriate concentration region for the epitaxial growth of the InN-AlN pseudobinary alloy. At a temperature most common for the epitaxial growth of InAlN (1000 K), the solubility of InN is about 10%. Then we introduce the mismatch strain item into the Gibbs free energy, and the effect of different substrates is taken into consideration. Considering Si, Al2O3, InN, GaN, AlN as a substrate respectively, it is found that all the five systems are stabilized with the upper critical solution temperature largely reduced. Finally, InN and GaN are potential substrates for In-rich InAlN, while AlN and GaN substrates are recommended in the Al-rich region. Si and Al2O3 may be ideal substrates for thin InAlN film.

Anisotropic structural and optical properties of semi-polar (11-22) GaN grown on m-plane sapphire using double AlN buffer layers.

We report the anisotropic structural and optical properties of semi-polar (11-22) GaN grown on m-plane sapphire using a three-step growth method which consisted of a low temperature AlN buffer layer, followed by a high temperature AlN buffer layer and GaN growth. By introducing double AlN buffer layers, we substantially improve the crystal and optical qualities of semi-polar (11-22) GaN, and significantly reduce the density of stacking faults and dislocations. The high resolution x-ray diffraction measurement revealed that the in-plane anisotropic structural characteristics of GaN layer are azimuthal dependent. Transmission electron microscopy analysis showed that the majority of dislocations in the GaN epitaxial layer grown on m-sapphire are the mixed-type and the orientation of GaN layer was rotated 58.4° against the substrate. The room temperature photoluminescence (PL) spectra showed the PL intensity and wavelength have polarization dependence along parallel and perpendicular to the [1-100] axis (polarization degrees ~ 0.63). The realization of a high polarization semi-polar GaN would be useful to achieve III-nitride based lighting emission device for displays and backlighting.

Morphology Controlled Fabrication of InN Nanowires on Brass Substrates.

Growth of semiconductor nanowires on cheap metal substrates could pave the way to the large-scale manufacture of low-cost nanowire-based devices. In this work, we demonstrated that high density InN nanowires can be directly grown on brass substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. It was found that Zn from the brass substrates is the key factor in the formation of nanowires by restricting the lateral growth of InN. The nanowire morphology is highly dependent on the growth temperature. While at a lower growth temperature, the nanowires and the In droplets have large diameters. At the elevated growth temperature, the lateral sizes of the nanowires and the In droplets are much smaller. Moreover, the nanowire diameter can be controlled in situ by varying the temperature in the growth process. This method is very instructive to the diameter-controlled growth of nanowires of other materials.

Morphology and composition controlled growth of polar c-axis and nonpolar m-axis well-aligned ternary III-nitride nanotube arrays.

Control over the nanostructure morphology and growth orientation is in high demand for fundamental research and technological applications. Herein we report a general strategy to fabricate polar c-axis and nonpolar m-axis well-aligned III-nitride ternary nanotube arrays with controllable morphologies and compositions. By depositing AlN on the InN nanorod array templates and thermally removing the InN templates, InAlN nanotubes can be obtained. Polar c-axis and nonpolar m-axis nanotubes were formed on the c- and r-plane sapphire substrates, respectively. The nanotubes are single crystalline and highly ordered on the substrates, as revealed by X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and selected area electron microscopy characterization. It was found that the In droplets on top of the InN nanorods play a critical role in controlling the morphology of the nanotubes. By keeping or removing the In droplets, the obtained nanotubes exhibited both ends open or only one end open. And by varying the AlN deposition temperature, the In composition in the nanotubes can be changed from 0 to 0.29. The nanotube synthesis method is simple and can be applied to the formation of other III-nitride ternary (InGaN, and AlGaN) or quaternary (InAlGaN) alloy nanotube arrays.

Competitive growth mechanisms of AlN on Si (111) by MOVPE.

To improve the growth rate and crystal quality of AlN, the competitive growth mechanisms of AlN under different parameters were studied. The mass transport limited mechanism was competed with the gas-phase parasitic reaction and became dominated at low reactor pressure. The mechanism of strain relaxation at the AlN/Si interface was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Improved deposition rate in the mass-transport-limit region and increased adatom mobility were realized under extremely low reactor pressure.