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Strain-stress study of AlxGa1–xN/AlN heterostructures on c-plane sapphire and related optical properties

Journal Article · · Scientific Reports
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [5];  [1];  [6];  [7]
  1. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Lyles School of Civil Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center; Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Applied Materials Div.
  2. Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO (United States). Electrical and Computer Engineering
  3. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Lyles School of Civil Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center
  4. Univ. of Science and Technology of China, Anhui (China). National Synchrotron Radiation Lab.; Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source
  5. Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Lemont, IL (United States). Advanced Photon Source
  6. Missouri Univ. of Science and Technology, Rolla, MO (United States). Electrical and Computer Engineering; Kennesaw State Univ., Marietta, GA (United States). Southern Polytechnic College of Engineering and Engineering Technology
  7. Purdue Univ., West Lafayette, IN (United States). Lyles School of Civil Engineering, Birck Nanotechnology Center and School of Materials Engineering
+ Show Author Affiliations

This work presents a systematic study of stress and strain of AlxGa1-xN/AlN with composition ranging from GaN to AlN, grown on a c-plane sapphire by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, using synchrotron radiation high-resolution X-ray diffraction and reciprocal space mapping. The c-plane of the AlxGa1-xN epitaxial layers exhibits compressive strain, while the alpha-plane exhibits tensile strain. The biaxial stress and strain are found to increase with increasing Al composition, although the lattice mismatch between the AlxGa1-xN and the buffer layer AlN gets smaller. A reduction in the lateral coherence lengths and an increase in the edge and screw dislocations are seen as the AlxGa1-xN composition is varied from GaN to AlN, exhibiting a clear dependence of the crystal properties of AlxGa1-xN on the Al content. The bandgap of the epitaxial layers is slightly lower than predicted value due to a larger tensile strain effect on the alpha-axis compared to the compressive strain on the c-axis. Raman characteristics of the AlxGa1-xN samples exhibit a shift in the phonon peaks with the Al composition. The effect of strain on the optical phonon energies of the epitaxial layers is also discussed

Research Organization:
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-06CH11357
OSTI ID:
1574136
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1580893
Journal Information:
Scientific Reports, Journal Name: Scientific Reports Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 9; ISSN 2045-2322
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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