Growth diagram of AlN epilayers grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

doi:10.1088/1674-1056/adcb23

Abstract We have investigated homoepitaxy of AlN films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on AlN/sapphire templates. The MBE epitaxy of AlN at the low temperature range, which is suitable for AlGaN, encounters significant challenge in preventing Al droplet and pits, since the migration and desorption rate of Al atom are very low. In contrast, by elevating the growth temperature, such a difficulty can be effectively overcome, and we were able to grow AlN films with much improved surface morphology and obtained step flow growth mode without any Al droplets and pits. The cathodoluminescence spectroscopy indicate that the impurity incorporation and defect generation in the AlN epilayers was suppressed by elevating the growth temperature. A systematic investigation on the influence of Al beam flux and growth temperature in a very wide range on the AlN films has been conducted, and a comprehensive growth diagram of MBE AlN has been obtained.

Keywords: AlN epitaxy films morphology growth diagram

Received: 04 March 2025
Revised: 07 April 2025
Accepted manuscript online: 10 April 2025

PACS:	77.55.hd	(AlN)
	81.15.-z	(Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy)
	68.55.J-	(Morphology of films)
	81.10.-h	(Methods of crystal growth; physics and chemistry of crystal growth, crystal morphology, and orientation)

Fund: Project supported by the Innovation Program for Quantum Science and Technology (Grant No. 2021ZD0303400), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant Nos. 2022YFB3605602 and 2024YFE0205000), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant No. BK20243037), and the Jiangsu Special Professorship, Collaborative Innovation Center of Solid-state Lighting and Energy-saving Electronics, Postdoctoral Fellowship Program of CPSF (Grant No. GZC20231098).

Corresponding Authors: Pengfei Shao, Ke Wang
E-mail: pfshao@nju.edu.cn;kewang@nju.edu.cn

Cite this article:

Huan Liu(刘欢), Pengfei Shao(邵鹏飞), Yu Liu(柳裕), Qi Yao(姚齐), Tao Tao(陶涛), Zili Xie(谢自力), Dunjun Chen(陈敦军), Bin Liu(刘斌), Hai Lu(陆海), Rong Zhang(张荣), and Ke Wang(王科) Growth diagram of AlN epilayers grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy 2025 Chin. Phys. B 34 077701

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Growth diagram of AlN epilayers grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

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