Effects of AlN nucleation layer thickness on crystal quality of AlN grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/19/11/116801

Abstract In this paper, the effects of thickness of AlN nucleation layer grown at high temperature on AlN epi-layer crystalline quality are investigated. Crack-free AlN samples with various nucleation thicknesses are grown on sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The AlN crystalline quality is analysed by transmission electron microscope and x-ray diffraction (XRD) rocking curves in both (002) and (102) planes. The surface profiles of nucleation layer with different thicknesses after in-situ annealing are also analysed by atomic force microscope. A critical nucleation thickness for realising high quality AlN films is found. When the nucleation thickness is above a certain value, the (102) XRD full width at half maximum (FWHM) of AlN bulk increases with nucleation thickness increasing, whereas the (002) XRD FWHM shows an opposite trend. These phenomena can be attributed to the characteristics of nucleation islands and the evolution of crystal grains during AlN main layer growth.

Keywords: aluminum nitride plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy nucleation layer

Received: 24 March 2010
Revised: 11 May 2010
Accepted manuscript online:

PACS:	52.77.Dq	(Plasma-based ion implantation and deposition)
	68.37.Lp	(Transmission electron microscopy (TEM))
	68.55.-a	(Thin film structure and morphology)
	68.55.A-	(Nucleation and growth)
	81.15.Hi	(Molecular, atomic, ion, and chemical beam epitaxy)
	81.40.Ef	(Cold working, work hardening; annealing, post-deformation annealing, quenching, tempering recovery, and crystallization)

Fund: Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 60536020 and 60723002), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant Nos. 2006CB302800 and 2006CB921106), the National High Technology Research and Development Program for Advanced Materials of China (Grant No. 2006AA03A105), and the Major Project of Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, China (Grant No. D0404003040321).

Cite this article:

Ren Fan(任凡), Hao Zhi-Biao(郝智彪), Hu Jian-Nan(胡健楠), Zhang Chen(张辰), and Luo Yi(罗毅) Effects of AlN nucleation layer thickness on crystal quality of AlN grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy 2010 Chin. Phys. B 19 116801

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Effects of AlN nucleation layer thickness on crystal quality of AlN grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

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