Epitaxial growth of ZnO thin films on LiGaO2 substrates by pulsed-laser deposition

Lattice-matched (Delta(a/a) = 1.8-3.4%) (001) LiGaO2 substrates have been employed for the first time to grow ZnO thin films by pulsed-laser deposition at 350-650 degrees C with oxygen partial pressure of 20Pa. XRD shows that a highly c-axis-oriented ZnO film can be deposited on (001) LiGaO2 substrate at 500 degrees C. AFM images reveal the surfaces of as-deposited ZnO films are smooth and root-mean-square values are 6.662, 5.765 and 6.834 nm at 350, 500 and 650 degrees C, respectively. PL spectra indicate only near-band-edge UV emission appears in the curve of ZnO film deposited at 500 degrees C. The deep-level emission of ZnO film deposited at 650 degrees C probably results from Li diffusion into the film. All the results illustrate substrate temperature plays a pretty important role in obtaining ZnO film with a high quality on LiGaO2 substrate by pulsed-laser deposition. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Selective epitaxial growth in silicon on insulator: Planarity and mass flow

Seeded zone-melt recrystallization using a dual electron beam system has been performed on silicon-on-insulator material, which was prepared with single-crystal silicon filling of the seed windows by selective epitaxial growth. The crystal quality has been assessed by a variety of microscopic techniques, and it is shown that single-crystal films 0.5-1.0 μm thick over 1.0 μm of isolating oxide may be prepared by this method. These films have considerably less lateral variation in thickness than standard material, in which the windows are not so filled. The filling method is suitable for both single- and multiple-layer silicon-on-insulator, and gives the advantages of excellent layer uniformity after recrystallization and improved planarity of the whole chip structure. Experiments using various amounts of seed window filling have shown that the lateral variations of silicon film thickness seen in unplanarized material are due to stress relief in the cap oxide when the silicon film is molten, rather than the effect previously postulated in which they were assumed to be due to the contraction of silicon on melting.

Investigation of fluorine three-dimensional redistribution during solid-phase-epitaxial-regrowth of amorphous Si

The fluorine redistribution during partial solid-phase-epitaxial-regrowth at 650°C of a preamorphized Si substrate implanted by F was investigated by atom probe tomography (APT), transmission electron microscopy, and secondary ions mass spectrometry. Three-dimensional spatial distribution of F obtained by APT provides a direct observation of F-rich clusters with a diameter of less than 1.5 nm. Density variation compatible with cavities and F-rich molecular ions in correspondence of clusters are in accordance with cavities filled by SiF 4 molecules. Their presence only in crystalline Si while they are not revealed by statistical analysis in amorphous suggests that they form at the amorphous/crystal interface. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

Zn2SiO4/ZnO Core/Shell Coaxial Heterostructure Nanobelts Formed by an Epitaxial Growth

Si-doped ZnO can be synthesized on the surface of the early grown Zn2SiO4 nanostructures and form core/ shell coaxial heterostructure nanobelts with an epitaxial orientation relationship. A parallel interface with a periodicity array of edge dislocations and an inclined interface without dislocations can be formed. The visible green emission is predominant in PL spectra due to carrier localization by high density of deep traps from complexes of impurities and defects. Due to band tail localization induced by composition and defect fluctuation, and high density of free-carriers donated by doping, especially the further dissociation of excitons into free-carriers at high excitation intensity, the near-band-edge emission is dominated by the transition of free-electrons to free-holes, and furthermore, exhibits a significant excitation power-dependent red-shift characteristic. Due to the structure relaxation and the thermalization effects, carrier delocalization takes place in deep traps with increasing excitation density. As a result, the green emission passes through a maximum at 0.25I(0) excitation intensity, and the ratio of the violet to green emission increases monotonously as the excitation laser power density increases. The violet and green emission of ZnO nanostructures can be well tuned by a moderate doping and a variation in the excitation density.

Epitaxial Growth of AlInGaN Quaternary Alloys by RF-MBE

AlInGaN quaternary alloys were successfully grown on sapphire substrate by radio-frequency plasma-excited molecular beam epitaxy (RF-MBE). AlInGaN quaternary alloys with different compositions were acquired by changing the Al cell's temperature. The streaky RHEED patterns were observed during AlInGaN quaternary alloys growth. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Rutherford back-scattering spectrometry (RBS), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and Cathodoluminescence (CL) were used to characterize the structural and optical properties of the AlInGaN alloys. The experimental results show that the AlInGaN quaternary alloys grow on the GaN buffer in the layer-by-layer growth mode. When the Al cell's temperature is 920 degrees C, the Al/In ratio in the AlInGaN quaternary alloys is about 4.7, and the AlInGaN can acquire better crystal and optical quality. The X-ray and CL full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the AlInGaN are 5arcmin and 25nm, respectively.

Epitaxial growth and characterization of SiC on C-plane sapphire substrates by ammonia nitridation

The growth of SiC epilayers on C-face (0 0 0 1) sapphire (alpha-Al2O3) has been performed using CVD method. We found that the quality of SiC epilayers has been improved through the nitridation of substrates by exposing them to ammonia ambient, as compared to growth on bare sapphire substrates. The single crystallinity of these layers was verified by XRD and double crystal XRD measurements. Atomic force microscopy was used to evaluate the surface morphology. Infrared reflectivity and Raman scattering measurement were carried out to investigate the phonon modes in the grown SiC. Detailed Raman analysis identified the 6H nature of the as-grown SiC films. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Epitaxial growth of SiC on complex substrates

Epitaxial growth of SiC on complex substrates was carried out at substrate temperature from 1200 degreesC to 1400 degreesC. Three kinds of new complex substrates, c-plane sapphire, AlN/sapphire, and GaN/AlN/sapphire, were used in this study. We obtained a growth rate in the range of 1-6 mum/h. Thick (6 mum) SIC epitaxial layers with no cracks were successfully obtained on AlN/sapphire and GaN/AlN/sapphire substrates. X-ray diffraction patterns have confirmed that single-crystal SiC was obtained on these complex substrates. Analysis of optical transmission spectra of the SIC grown on sapphire substrates shows the lowest-energy gap near 2.2 eV, which is the value for cubic SiC. The undoped SIC showed n-type electrical conductivity. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Epitaxial growth of GaNAs/GaAs heterostructure materials

A series of systematic experiments on the growth of high quality GaNAs strained layers on GaAs (001) substrate have been carried out by using DC active Nz plasma, assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The samples of GaNAs between 3 and 200 nm thick were evaluated by double crystal X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. PL and XRD measurements for these samples are in good agreement. Some material growth and structure parameters affecting the properties of GaNAs/GaAs heterostructure were studied; they were: (1) growth temperature of GaNAs epilayer; (2) electrical current of active N-2 plasma; (3) Nz flow rate; (4) GaNAs growth rate; (5) the thickness of GaNAs strained layer. XRD and PL measurements showed that superlattice with distinct satellite peaks up to two orders and quantum well structure with intensity at 22 meV Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FWHM) can be achieved in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

The dependence of GexSi1-x epitaxial growth on GeH4 flow using chemical vapour deposition

GexSi1-x epilayers were grown at 700-900 degrees C by atmospheric pressure chemical vapour deposition. GexSi1-x, Si and Ge growth rates as functions of GeH4 flow are considered separately to investigate how the growth of the epilayers is enhanced. Arrhenius plots of Si and Ge incorporation in the GexSi1-x growth show the activation energies associated with the growth rates are about 1.2 eV for silicon and 0.4 eV for germanium, indicating that Si growth is limited by surface kinetics and Ge growth is limited by mass transport. A model based on this idea is proposed and used to simulate the growth of GexSi1-x. The calculation and experiment are in good agreement. Growth rate and film composition increase monotonically with growth pressure; both observations are explained by the model.

High epitaxial growth rate of 4H-SiC using TCS as silicon precursor

High homoepitaxial growth of 4H-SiC has been performed in a home-made horizontal hot wall CVD reactor on n-type 4H-SiC 8 degrees off-oriented substrates in the size of 10 mm x 10 mm, using trichlorosilane (TCS) as silicon precursor source together with ethylene as carbon precursor source. Cross-section Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Raman scattering spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) were used to determine the growth rate, structural property and surface morphology, respectively. The growth rate reached to 23 mu m/h and the optimal epilayer was obtained at 1600 degrees C with TCS flow rate of 12 seem in C/Si of 0.42, which has a good surface morphology with a low Rms of 0.64 nm in 10 mu mx10 mu m area.