Fabrication of Silicon Crystal-Facet-Dependent Nanostructures by Electron-Beam Lithography

Silicon crystal-facet-dependent nanostructures have been successfully fabricated on a (100)-oriented silicon-on-insulator wafer using electron-beam lithography and the silicon anisotropic wet etching technique. This technique takes ad-vantage of the large difference in etching properties for different crystallographic planes in alkaline solution. The mini-mum size of the trapezoidal top for those Si nanostructures can be reduced to less than 10nm. Scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) observations indicate that the etched nanostructures have controllable shapes and smooth surfaces.

Etching Behavior of GaN/GaAs(001) Epilayers Grown by MOVPE

Wet etching characteristics of cubic GAN (c-GaN) thin films grown on GaAs(001) by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) are investigated. The samples are etched in HCl, H_3PO_4, KOH aqueous solutions, and molten KOH at temperatures in the range of 90～300 ℃. It is found that different solution produces different etch figure on the surfaces of a sample. KOH-based solutions produce rectangular pits rather than square pits. The etch pits elongate in [1(1-bar)0] direction, indicating asymmetric etching behavior in the two orthogonal <110> directions. An explanation based on relative reactivity of the various crystallographic planes is employed to interpret qualitatively the asymmetric etching behavior. In addition, it is found that KOH aqueous solution would be more suitable than molten KOH and the two acids for the evaluation of stacking faults in c-GaN epilayers.

Microstructural and compositional characteristics of GaN films grown on a ZnO-buffered Si(111) wafer

Polycrystalline GaN thin films have been deposited epitaxially on a ZnO-buffered (111)-oriented Si substrate by molecular beam epitaxy. The microstructural and compositional characteristics of the films were studied by analytical transmission electron microscopy (TEM). A SiO2 amorphous layer about 3.5 nm in thickness between the Si/ZnO interface has been identified by means of spatially resolved electron energy loss spectroscopy. Cross-sectional and plan-view TEM investigations reveal (GaN/ZnO/SiO2/Si) layers exhibiting definite a crystallographic relationship: [111](Si)//[111](ZnO)//[0001](GaN) along the epitaxy direction. GaN films are polycrystalline with nanoscale grains (similar to100 nm in size) grown along [0001] direction with about 20degrees between the (1 (1) over bar 00) planes of adjacent grains. A three-dimensional growth mode for the buffer layer and the film is proposed to explain the formation of the as-grown polycrystalline GaN films and the functionality of the buffer layer. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Orientation relationship between hexagonal inclusions and cubic GaN grown on GaAs(001) substrates

Cubic GaN/GaAs(0 0 1) epilayers and hexagonal inclusions are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence (PL), Raman spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The X-ray {0 0 0 2} and (1 0 (1) over bar 0) pole figures show that the orientation relationships between cubic GaN and hexagonal inclusions are (1 1 1)//(0 0 0 1), <1 1 2 >//<1 0 (1) over bar 0 >. The distribution of hexagonal inclusions mainly results from the interfacial bonding disorder in the grain boundaries parallel to hexagonal <0 0 0 1 > directions and the lattice mismatch in <0 0 0 1 > directions on {1 0 (1) over bar 0} planes. In order to reduce the energy increase in cubic epilayers, hexagonal lamellas with smaller sizes in <0 0 0 1 > directions often nucleate inside the buffer layer or near the interface between the buffer layer and the epitaxial layer, and penetrate through the whole epitaxial layer with this orientation relationship. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.