Influence of Al<inf>x</inf>Ga<inf>1-x</inf>N nucleation layers on MOVPE-grown zincblende GaN epilayers on 3C-SiC/Si(001)
Publication Date
2022Journal Title
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
ISSN
0022-3727
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Volume
55
Issue
17
Language
en
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Metadata
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Gundimeda, A., Rostami, M., Frentrup, M., Hinz, A., Kappers, M., Wallis, D., & Oliver, R. (2022). Influence of Al<inf>x</inf>Ga<inf>1-x</inf>N nucleation layers on MOVPE-grown zincblende GaN epilayers on 3C-SiC/Si(001). Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 55 (17) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ac4c58
Abstract
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>
<jats:p>The suitability of Al<jats:italic>
<jats:sub>x</jats:sub>
</jats:italic>Ga<jats:sub>1−<jats:italic>x</jats:italic>
</jats:sub>N nucleation layers (NLs) with varying Al fraction <jats:italic>x</jats:italic> for the metal organic vapour phase epitaxy of zincblende GaN on (001) 3C-SiC was investigated, using x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and x-ray diffraction. The as-grown NLs exhibited elongated island structures on their surface, which reduce laterally into smaller, more equiaxed islands with increasing AlN composition. During high-temperature annealing in a mixture of NH<jats:sub>3</jats:sub> and H<jats:sub>2</jats:sub> the nucleation islands with low Al fraction ripened and increased in size, whereas this effect was less pronounced in samples with higher Al fraction. The compressive biaxial in-plane strain of the NLs increases with increasing AlN composition up to <jats:italic>x</jats:italic> = 0.29. GaN epilayers grown over NLs that have low Al fraction have high cubic zincblende phase purity and are slightly compressively strained relative to 3C-SiC. However, those samples with a measured Al fraction in the NL higher than 0.29 were predominantly of the hexagonal wurtzite phase, due to formation of wurtzite inclusions on various {111} facets of zb-GaN, thus indicating the optimal Al composition for phase-pure zb-GaN epilayer growth.</jats:p>
Keywords
Paper, Semiconductors and photonics, AlGaN, nucleation layers, zincblende, surface morphology, phase purity
Sponsorship
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/M010589/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/R01146X/1)
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/N01202X/1)
Identifiers
dac4c58, ac4c58, jphysd-129133.r2
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6463/ac4c58
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/333557
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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