Thermal stability of ultra-wide-bandgap MgZnO alloys with wurtzite structure

Thapa, Dinesh; Huso, Jesse; Lapp, Jeffrey; Rajabi, Negar; Morrison, John L.; McCluskey, Matthew D.; Bergman, Leah

doi:10.1007/s10854-018-9772-y

Title: Thermal stability of ultra-wide-bandgap MgZnO alloys with wurtzite structure

Journal Article · 07 August 2018 · Journal of Materials Science Materials in Electronics

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-018-9772-y · OSTI ID:1463178

Thapa, Dinesh ^[1]; Huso, Jesse ^[1]; Lapp, Jeffrey ^[1]; Rajabi, Negar ^[1]; Morrison, John L. ^[2]; McCluskey, Matthew D. ^[3];

^[1]

Univ. of Idaho, Moscow, ID (United States)
Lewis-Clark State College, Lewiston, ID (United States)
Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)

Mg_xZn_1–xO thin films were grown as metastable alloys via a sputtering technique in order to achieve single-phase wurtzite alloys with deep-UV optical bandgaps. As-grown alloys with Mg composition range 0–72% resulted in optical bandgaps spanning the UV-range of 3.3–4.4 eV. The thermal stability of the alloys was studied via post-growth controlled annealing experiments up to 900 °C. Alloys with low Mg up to 34% were found to be highly stable and retained their optical and material properties; however, alloys with higher Mg, up to 72%, were found to be unstable and were phase separated into wurtzite and cubic structural phases with respective optical bandgaps at ~ 3.5 and 6.0 eV. Both the as-grown and annealed alloys were studied using X-ray diffraction for structural identification, transmission spectroscopy for bandgap analysis, and Raman scattering for mapping the phonon mode-behavior. The experimental value for the solubility limit was found to be ~ 30%. A straightforward model calculation based on the Raman-mode saturation behavior yielded a similar value for the solubility limit of the alloys. Furthermore, the results are discussed in terms of available phase-diagrams for stable-state ceramics alloys that were grown under thermodynamics equilibrium conditions.

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Research Organization:: Washington State Univ., Pullman, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division; USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: FG02-07ER46386

OSTI ID:: 1463178

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1489145

Journal Information:: Journal of Materials Science Materials in Electronics, Vol. 29, Issue 19; ISSN 0957-4522

Publisher:: SpringerCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 7 works

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