Investigations of the GaN, AlN and InN semiconductors: Structural, optical, electronic and interfacial properties

Miscellaneous · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1993

OSTI ID:7236191

Strite, III, S C

Described in this thesis is an investigation of some fundamental physical properties of both zincblende and wurtzite Group III - Nitride wide bandgap semiconductor materials. All of the thin films studied were grown by plasma-enhanced molecular beam epitaxy on either GaAs and SiC substrates. This growth method proved to be suitable for nitride epitaxial growth although compromises between the plasma power and the crystal growth rate had to be sought. The zincblende polytypes of GaN and InN were studied with the intent of evaluating their potential as a wide bandgap semiconductor system for short wavelength optical devices. The metastability of these crystals has led us to the conclusion that the zincblende nitrides are not a promising candidate for these applications due to their tendency to nucleate wurtzite domains. Bulk samples of zincblende GaN and InN and wurtzite GaN, AlN and InN were studied by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) in an effort to determine their valence band structure. The authors report the various energies of the valence band density of states maxima as well as the ionicity gaps of each material. Wurtzite GaN/AlN and InN/AlN heterostructures were also investigated by XPS in order to estimate the valence band discontinuities of these heterojunctions. The authors measured valence band discontinuities of [Delta]E[sub v][sup GaN/AlN] = 0.4 [+-] 0.4 eV and [Delta]E[sub v][sup InN/AlN] = 1.1 [+-] 0.4 eV. The results indicate that both systems have heterojunction band lineups fundamentally suitable for common optical device applications.

• Research Organization: Illinois Univ., Urbana, IL (United States)
• OSTI ID: 7236191
• Resource Relation: Other Information: Thesis (Ph.D.)
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
ALUMINIUM NITRIDES
ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
GALLIUM NITRIDES
INDIUM NITRIDES
HETEROJUNCTIONS
INTERFACES
OPTICAL SYSTEMS
SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
X-RAY SPECTROSCOPY
ALUMINIUM COMPOUNDS
GALLIUM COMPOUNDS
INDIUM COMPOUNDS
JUNCTIONS
MATERIALS
NITRIDES
NITROGEN COMPOUNDS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
PNICTIDES
SEMICONDUCTOR JUNCTIONS
SPECTROSCOPY
360606* - Other Materials- Physical Properties- (1992-)