Origin and roles of oxygen impurities in hexagonal boron nitride epilayers
Abstract
Photoluminescence emission spectroscopy and electrical transport measurements have been employed to study the origin and roles of oxygen impurities in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) epilayers grown on sapphire substrates. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity revealed the presence of a previously unnoticed impurity level of about 0.6 eV in h-BN epilayers grown at high temperatures. The findings suggested that in addition to the common nitrogen vacancy (VN) shallow donors in h-BN, oxygen impurities diffused from sapphire substrates during high temperature growth also act as substitutional donors (ON). The presence of ON gives rise to an additional emission peak in the photoluminescence spectrum, corresponding to a donor-acceptor pair recombination involving the ON donor and the CN (carbon occupying nitrogen site) deep level acceptor. Moreover, due to the presence of ON donors, the majority charge carrier type changed to electrons in epilayers grown at high temperatures, in contrast to typical h-BN epilayers which naturally reflect “p-type” character. The results offered a more coherent picture for common impurities/defects in h-BN as well as a better understanding of the growth mediated impurities in h-BN epilayers, which will be helpful for finding possible ways to further improve the quality and purity of this emergingmore »
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Texas Tech Univ., Lubbock, TX (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1540187
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1433288
- Grant/Contract Number:
- NA0002927
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Applied Physics Letters
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 112; Journal Issue: 16; Journal ID: ISSN 0003-6951
- Publisher:
- American Institute of Physics (AIP)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS
Citation Formats
Grenadier, S. J., Maity, A., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., and Jiang, H. X. Origin and roles of oxygen impurities in hexagonal boron nitride epilayers. United States: N. p., 2018.
Web. doi:10.1063/1.5026291.
Grenadier, S. J., Maity, A., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., & Jiang, H. X. Origin and roles of oxygen impurities in hexagonal boron nitride epilayers. United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5026291
Grenadier, S. J., Maity, A., Li, J., Lin, J. Y., and Jiang, H. X. Mon .
"Origin and roles of oxygen impurities in hexagonal boron nitride epilayers". United States. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5026291. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1540187.
@article{osti_1540187,
title = {Origin and roles of oxygen impurities in hexagonal boron nitride epilayers},
author = {Grenadier, S. J. and Maity, A. and Li, J. and Lin, J. Y. and Jiang, H. X.},
abstractNote = {Photoluminescence emission spectroscopy and electrical transport measurements have been employed to study the origin and roles of oxygen impurities in hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) epilayers grown on sapphire substrates. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity revealed the presence of a previously unnoticed impurity level of about 0.6 eV in h-BN epilayers grown at high temperatures. The findings suggested that in addition to the common nitrogen vacancy (VN) shallow donors in h-BN, oxygen impurities diffused from sapphire substrates during high temperature growth also act as substitutional donors (ON). The presence of ON gives rise to an additional emission peak in the photoluminescence spectrum, corresponding to a donor-acceptor pair recombination involving the ON donor and the CN (carbon occupying nitrogen site) deep level acceptor. Moreover, due to the presence of ON donors, the majority charge carrier type changed to electrons in epilayers grown at high temperatures, in contrast to typical h-BN epilayers which naturally reflect “p-type” character. The results offered a more coherent picture for common impurities/defects in h-BN as well as a better understanding of the growth mediated impurities in h-BN epilayers, which will be helpful for finding possible ways to further improve the quality and purity of this emerging material.},
doi = {10.1063/1.5026291},
journal = {Applied Physics Letters},
number = 16,
volume = 112,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2018},
month = {Mon Apr 16 00:00:00 EDT 2018}
}
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