Strong effect of scandium source purity on chemical and electronic properties of epitaxial ScxAl1–xN/GaN heterostructures

Casamento, Joseph; Lee, Hyunjea; Chang, Celesta S.; Besser, Matthew F.; Maeda, Takuya; Muller, David A.; Xing, Huili (Grace); Jena, Debdeep

doi:10.1063/5.0054522

Title: Strong effect of scandium source purity on chemical and electronic properties of epitaxial Sc_xAl_1–xN/GaN heterostructures

Journal Article · Tue Sep 07 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · APL Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0054522· OSTI ID:1819746

^[1]; Lee, Hyunjea ^[1];

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Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States)
Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY (United States); Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)

Epitaxial multilayer heterostructures of Sc_xAl_1–xN/GaN with Sc contents x = 0.11–0.45 are found to exhibit significant differences in structural quality, chemical impurity levels, and electronic properties depending on the starting Sc source impurity levels. A higher purity source leads to a 2–3 orders of magnitude reduction in the carbon, oxygen, and fluorine unintentional doping densities in MBE-grown Sc_xAl_1–xN/GaN multilayers. Electrical measurements of Sc_xAl_1–xN/n⁺GaN single heterostructure barriers show a 5–7 orders of magnitude reduction in the electrical leakage for films grown with a higher purity Sc source at most Sc contents. The measured chemical and electrical properties of epitaxial Sc_xAl_1–xN highlight the importance of the starting Sc source material purity for epitaxial device applications that need these highly piezoelectric and/or ferroelectric transition-metal nitride alloys.

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Research Organization:: Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: AC02-07CH11358

OSTI ID:: 1819746

Report Number(s):: IS-J-10.587; DARPA-PA-19-04-03; DMR-1534303; DMR-1719875; NSF-MRI-1429155; DMR-1539918; DMR-1710298; NNCI-1542081; FA9550-20-1-0148; TRN: US2214572

Journal Information:: APL Materials, Vol. 9, Issue 9; ISSN 2166-532X

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Title: Strong effect of scandium source purity on chemical and electronic properties of epitaxial ScxAl1–xN/GaN heterostructures

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Title: Strong effect of scandium source purity on chemical and electronic properties of epitaxial Sc_xAl_1–xN/GaN heterostructures