Molecular beam homoepitaxy of N-polar AlN: Enabling role of aluminum-assisted surface cleaning

Zhang, Zexuan; Hayashi, Yusuke; Tohei, Tetsuya; Sakai, Akira; Protasenko, Vladimir; Singhal, Jashan; Miyake, Hideto; Xing, Huili Grace; Jena, Debdeep; Cho, YongJin

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abo6408

Molecular beam homoepitaxy of N-polar AlN: Enabling role of aluminum-assisted surface cleaning

Journal Article · Fri Sep 09 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Science Advances

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo6408· OSTI ID:1980720

^[1]; Hayashi, Yusuke ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[3]; ^[3]; ^[4]; ^[5]; ^[5]; ^[3]

Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Cornell University
Osaka Univ. (Japan)
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Mie University (Japan)
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Ithaca, NY (United States)

N-polar aluminum nitride (AlN) is an important building block for next-generation high-power radio frequency electronics. We report successful homoepitaxial growth of N-polar AlN by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on large-area, cost-effective N-polar AlN templates. Direct growth without any in situ surface cleaning leads to films with inverted Al polarity. It is found that Al-assisted cleaning before growth enables the epitaxial film to maintain N-polarity. The grown N-polar AlN epilayer with its smooth, pit-free surface duplicates the structural quality of the substrate, as evidenced by a clean and smooth growth interface with no noticeable extended defects generation. Near band-edge photoluminescence peaks are observed at room temperature on samples with MBE-grown layers but not on the bare AlN templates, implying the suppression of nonradiative recombination centers in the epitaxial N-polar AlN.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

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

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0021230

OSTI ID:: 1980720

Journal Information:: Science Advances, Journal Name: Science Advances Journal Issue: 36 Vol. 8; ISSN 2375-2548

Publisher:: AAASCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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