Effect of growth conditions on the GaN thin film by sputtering deposition

The phase transition between thermodynamically stable hexagonal wurtzite (h-WZ) gallium nitride (GaN) and metastable cubic zinc-blende (c-ZB) GaN during growth by radio-frequency planar magnetron sputtering is studied. GaN films grown on substrates with lower mismatches tend to have a h-WZ structure, but when grown on substrates with higher mismatches, a c-ZB structure is preferred. GaN films grown under high nitrogen pressure also tend to have a h-WZ structure, whereas a c-ZB structure is preferred when grown under low nitrogen pressure. In addition, low target-power growth not only helps to improve hexagonal GaN (h-GaN) crystalline quality at high nitrogen pressure on low-mismatch substrates, but also enhances cubic GaN (c-GaN) quality at low nitrogen pressure on high-mismatch substrates. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dipole mode photonic crystal point defect laser on InGaAsP/InP

In this paper, we focus on the dipole mode of the two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PC) single point defect cavity (SPDC) lasers and we report the fabrication and characterization of 2D PC SPDC lasers with the structure of adjusted innermost air holes. The photonic band and cavity Q factors are simulated by means of plane wave expansion (PWE) and finite-difference time-domain (FDTD), respectively. In order to improve the optical confinement of the SPDC, the diameter of the innermost holes was adjusted. Different lasing performances are observed experimentally. The experimental results agree with the theoretical prediction very well. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effect of substrate temperature on the growth and photoluminescence properties of vertically aligned ZnO nanostructures

Vertically well-aligned ZnO nanoridge, nanorod, nanorod-nanowall junction, and nanotip arrays have been successfully synthesized on Si (100) substrates using a pulsed laser deposition prepared ZnO film as seed layer by thermal evaporation method. Experimental results illustrated that the growth of different morphologies of ZnO nanostructures was strongly dependent upon substrate temperature. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies showed that the ZnO nanostructures were single crystals with a wurtzite structure. Compared with those of the other nanostructures, the photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of nanorod-nanowall junctions showed the largest intensity ratio of ultraviolet (UV) to yellow-green emission and the smallest full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the UV peak, reflecting the high optical quality and nearly defect free of crystal structure. The vertical alignment of the nanowire array on the substrate is attributed to the epitaxial growth of the nanostructures from the ZnO buffer layer. The growth mechanism was also discussed in detail. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The role of Sb in the molecular beam epitaxy growth of 1.30-1.55 mu m wavelength GaInNAs/GaAs quantum well with high indium content

Sb-assisted GaInNAs/GaAs quantum wells (QWs) with high (42.5%) indium content were investigated systematically. Transmission electron microscopy, reflection high-energy electron diffraction and photoluminescence (PL) measurements reveal that Sb acts as a surfactant to suppress three-dimensional growth. The improvement in the 1.55 mu m range is much more apparent than that in the 1.3 mu m range.. which can be attributed to the difference in N composition. The PL intensity and the full-width at half maximum of the 1.55 mu m single-QW were comparable with that of the 1.3 Am QWs. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The effect of AlN growth time on the electrical properties of Al0.38Ga0.62N/AlN/GaN HEMT structures

Al0.38Ga0.62N/AIN/GaN HEMT structures have been grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on 2-inch sapphire substrates. Samples with AIN growth time of 0s (without AIN interlayer), 12, 15, 18 and 24s are characterized and compared. The electrical properties of two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) are improved by introducing AIN interlayers. The AIN growth time in the range of 12-18s, corresponding to the AIN thickness of 1-1.5 nm, is appropriate for the design of Al0.38Ga0.62N/AIN/GaN HEMT structures. The lowest sheet resistance of 277 Omega sq(-1) and highest room temperature 2DEG mobility of 1460 cm(2)V(-1) s(-1) are obtained on structure with AIN growth time of 12s. The structure with AIN growth time of 15s exhibits the highest 2DEG concentration of 1.59 x 10(13) cm(-2) and the smallest RMS surface roughness of 0.2 nm. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Magnetron sputtering growth of InAs0.3Sb0.7 films on (100) GaAs substrates: Strong effect of growth conditions on film structure

The growth of highly lattice-mismatched InAs0.3Sb0.7 films on (100) GaAs Substrates by magnetron Sputtering has been investigated and even epitaxial lnAs(0.3)Sb(0.7) films have been successfully obtained. A strong effect of the growth conditions on the film structure was observed, revealing that there was a growth mechanism transition from three-dimensional nucleation growth to epitaxial layer-by-layer growth mode when increasing the substrate temperature. A qualitative explanation for that transition was proposed and the critical conditions for the epitaxial layer-by-layer growth mode were also discussed. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Effects of the sulfur pressure on pyrite FeS2 films prepared by sulfurizing thermally iron films

The effect of sulfur vapor pressure in preparing the FeS2 films has been discussed and some incongruous views about sulfur pressure have been clarified in this paper based on experimental results and theoretical analysis. It is shown that lower sulfur pressures than the saturation value only result in poorer crystallization and worse performances, and in other words the FeS2 films could be optimized through improving the sulfur pressure till the saturation point. However for a certain temperature the sulfur pressure is limited by its saturated vapor pressure, and further increase of the sulfur quantity reacted with Fe films has little influence on the structure and properties of the pyrite films. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Structural and photoluminescent properties of ternary Zn1-xCdxO crystal films grown on Si(111) substrates

The ternary Zn1-xCdxO (0less than or equal toxless than or equal to0.6) alloying films with highly c-axis orientation have been deposited on Si(111) substrates by direct current reactive magnetron sputtering method. X-ray diffraction measurement indicates that the wurtzite-type structure of ZnO can be stabilized up to nominal Cd content x similar to 0.6 without cubic CdO phase separation. The lattice parameter c of Zn1-xCdxO increases almost linearly from 5.229 Angstrom (x = 0) to 5.247 Angstrom (x = 0.6), indicating that Cd substitution takes place on the Zn lattice sites. The photoluminescence spectra of the Zn1-xCdxO thin films measured at 12 K display a substantial red shift (similar to0.3 eV) in the near-band-edges (NBEs) emission of ZnO: from 3.39 eV of ZnO to 3.00 eV of Zn0.4Cd0.6O. The direct modulation of band gap caused by Zn/Cd substitution is responsible for the red shift effect in NBE emission of ZnO. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Selective area growth of GaN on GaAs(001) substrates by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy

Selective area growth (SAG) of GaN on SiO2 stripe-patterned GaN/GaAs(001) substrates was carried out by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy. The SAG samples were investigated by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM observations showed that the morphology of SAG GaN is strongly dependent on the window stripe orientation and slightly affected by the orientation relationship between the window stripes and the gas flow. The (I 1 1)B sidewalls formed on the SAG GaN stripes are found to be stable. XRD measurements indicated the full-widths at half-maximum (FWHMs) of cubic GaN (0 0 2) rocking curves are reduced after SAG. The measured FWHMs with omega-axis parallel to [1(1) over bar 0] are always larger than the FWHM values obtained with omega-axis parallel to [I 10], regardless of the orientation relationship between the w-axis and the GaN stripes. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

(Ga,Mn,N) compounds growth with mass-analyzed low energy dual ion beam deposition

The (Ga,Mn,N) samples were grown by the implantation of low-energy Mn ions into GaN/Al2O3 substrate at different elevated substrate temperatures with mass-analyzed low-energy dual ion beam deposition system. Auger electron spectroscopy depth profile of samples grown at different substrate temperatures indicates that the Mn ions reach deeper in samples with higher substrate temperatures. Clear X-ray diffraction peak from (Ga,Mn)N is observed in samples grown at the higher substrate temperature. It indicates that under optimized substrate temperature and annealing conditions the solid solution (Ga,Mn)N phase in samples was formed with the same lattice structure as GaN and different lattice constant. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Selective-area MOCVD growth for distributed feedback lasers integrated with vertically tapered self-aligned waveguide

The growth pressure and mask width dependent thickness enhancement factors of selective-area MOCVD. grow th were investigated in this article. A, high enhancement of 5.8 was obtained at 130 mbar with the mask width of 70 mum. Mismatched InGaAsP (-0.5%) at the maskless region which could ensure the material at butt-joint region to be matched to InP was successively grown by controlling the composition and mismatch modulation in the selective-area growth. The upper optical confinement layer and the butt-coupled tapered thickness waveguide were regrown simultaneously in separated confined heterostructure 1.55 gm distributed feedback laser, which not only offered the separated optimization of the active region and the integrated spotsize converter, but also reduced the difficulty of the butt-joint selective regrowth. A narrow beam of 9degrees and 12degrees in the vertical and horizontal directions, a low threshold current of 6.5 mA was fabricated by using this technique. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

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.

Growth temperature effect on the optical and material properties of AlxInyGa1-x-yN epilayers grown by MOCVD

AlxInyGa1-x-yN epilayers have been grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) at different temperatures from 800 to 870degreesC. The incorporation of indium is found to increase with decreasing growth temperature, while the incorporation of Al remains nearly constant. The optical properties of the samples have been investigated by photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) at different temperatures. The results show that the sample grown at 820 C exhibits the best optical quality for its large PL intensity and the absence of the yellow luminescence. Furthermore the temperature-dependent PL and TRPL of the sample reveals its less exciton localization effect caused by alloy fluctuations. In the scanning electron microscopy measurement, much uniform surface morphology is found for the sample grown at 820degreesC, in good agreement with the PL results, The improvement of AlxInyGa1-x-yN quality is well correlated with the incorporation of indium into AlGaN and the possible mechanism is discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

The growth morphologies of GaN layer on Si(111) substrate

The growth morphologies of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) grown GaN layer on Si(111) substrate were studied using atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the growth process of GaN/Si(111) consisted of two cycles of island growth and coalescence. These two cycles process differs markedly from that of one cycle process reported. The stress of evolving GaN layers on Si(111) was characterized by measuring the lattice constant c of GaN using X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. It was proposed that the large tensile stress within the film during growth initiated this second island growth cycle, and the interaction between the GaN islands with high orientational fluctuation on the buffer layer induced this large tensile growth stress when coalescence occurred. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Abnormal effect of growth interruption on GaSb quantum dots formation grown by molecular beam epitaxy

The growth interruption (GI) effect on GaSb quantum dot formation grown on GaAs by molecular beam epitaxy was investigated. The structure characterization was performed by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED), along with photoluminescence measurements. It is found that the GI can significantly change the surface morphology of GaSb QDs. During the GI, the QDs structures can be smoothed out and turned into a 2D-like structure. The time duration of the GI required for the 3D/2D transition depends on the growth time of the GaSb layer. It increases with the increase of the growth time. Our results are explained by a combined effect of the stress relaxation process and surface exchange reactions during the GI. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.