MBE growth and donor doping of coherent ultrawide bandgap AlGaN alloy layers on single-crystal AlN substrates

Lee, Kevin; Page, Ryan; Protasenko, Vladimir; Schowalter, Leo J.; Toita, Masato; Xing, Huili Grace; Jena, Debdeep

doi:10.1063/5.0037079

MBE growth and donor doping of coherent ultrawide bandgap AlGaN alloy layers on single-crystal AlN substrates

Journal Article · Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0037079· OSTI ID:1831084

^[1]; Page, Ryan ^[2]; Protasenko, Vladimir ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[3]; ^[2]; ^[2]

Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Arizona State University
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Asahi Kasei Corporation, Tokyo (Japan)

Single-crystal Aluminum Nitride (AlN) crystals enable the epitaxial growth of ultrawide bandgap Al(Ga)N alloys with drastically lower extended defect densities. Here, we report the plasma-MBE growth conditions for high Al-composition AlGaN alloys on single-crystal AlN substrates. An AlGaN growth guideline map is developed, leading to pseudomorphic Al_xGa_1–xN epitaxial layers with x ~0.6–1.0 Al contents at a growth rate of ~0.3 μm/h. These epitaxial layers exhibit atomic steps, indicating step flow epitaxial growth, and room-temperature band edge emission from ~4.5 to 5.9 eV. Growth conditions are identified in which the background impurity concentrations of O, C, Si, and H in the MBE layers are found to be very near or below detection limits. An interesting Si segregation and gettering behavior is observed at the epitaxial AlGaN/AlN heterojunction with significant implications for the formation and transport of 2D electron or hole gases. Well-controlled intentional Si doping ranging from ~2 × 10¹⁷ to 3 × 10¹⁹ atoms/cm³ is obtained, with sharp dopant density transition profiles. In Si-doped Al_0.6Ga_0.4N epilayers, a room-temperature free electron concentration of ~3 × 10¹⁹/cm³, an electron mobility of ~27 cm²/V s, and an n-type resistivity of ~7.5 m Ω cm are obtained. Here, the implications of these findings on electronic and photonic devices on single-crystal AlN substrates are discussed.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0021230

OSTI ID:: 1831084

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1768651

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 118; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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