Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Defect microstructure of thin wurtzite GaN films grown by MBE

Conference ·
OSTI ID:394948
; ; ; ;  [1]; ;  [2]
  1. Univ. of Illinois, Urbana, IL (United States)
  2. Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

Thin films of wurtzite GaN have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on 6H SiC (basal plane), Si{l_brace}111{r_brace} and sapphire (c-plane) substrates with and without various buffer layers. The defect microstructure of the films and the substrate/buffer/GaN interfacial quality have been characterized by cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy. The morphology was dominated by threading defects that originated at the substrate/buffer and/or buffer/film interfaces. Typical defect densities dropped rapidly with distance from the substrate but remained {approximately} 10{sup 8}--10{sup 9}/cm{sup 2}, depending on the particular substrate, for film thicknesses approaching one micron or more. The best quality films were grown at 770 C on sapphire with AlN buffer layers, and had X-ray rocking curve full-width at half-maximum values of {approximately} 55arc-sec.

OSTI ID:
394948
Report Number(s):
CONF-951155--; ISBN 1-55899-298-7
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English