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Liquid-metal-enabled synthesis of aluminum-containing III-nitrides by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Nanotechnology and Microelectronics, ISSN: 2166-2754, Vol: 34, Issue: 2
2016
  • 7
    Citations
  • 0
    Usage
  • 12
    Captures
  • 0
    Mentions
  • 0
    Social Media
Metric Options:   Counts1 Year3 Year

Metrics Details

  • Citations
    7
    • Citation Indexes
      7
  • Captures
    12

Article Description

Nitride films are promising for advanced optoelectronic and electronic device applications. However, some challenges continue to impede development of high aluminum-containing devices. The two major difficulties are growth of high crystalline quality films with aluminum-rich compositions, and efficiently doping such films p-type. These problems have severely limited the use of aluminum-rich nitride films grown by molecular beam epitaxy. A way around these problems is through use of a liquid-metal-enabled approach to molecular beam epitaxy. Although the presence of a liquid metal layer at the growth front is reminiscent of conventional liquid phase epitaxy, this approach is different in its details. Conventional liquid epitaxy is a near-thermodynamic equilibrium process which liquid-metal assisted molecular beam epitaxy is not. Growth of aluminum-rich nitrides is primarily driven by the kinetics of the molecular vapor fluxes, and the surface diffusion of adatoms through a liquid metal layer before incorporation. This paper reports on growth of high crystalline quality and highly doped aluminum-containing nitride films. Measured optical and electrical characterization data show that the approach is viable for growth of atomically smooth aluminum-containing nitride heterostructures. Extremely high p-type doping of up to 6 × 10 cm and n-type doping of up to 1 × 10 cm in AlGaN films was achieved. Use of these metal-rich conditions is expected to have a significant impact on high efficiency and high power optoelectronic and electronic devices that require both high crystalline quality and highly doped (Al,Ga)N films.

Bibliographic Details

Yu Han Liang; Noel T. Nuhfer; Elias Towe

American Vacuum Society

Materials Science; Physics and Astronomy; Chemical Engineering; Engineering

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