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Chin. Phys. B, 2024, Vol. 33(8): 086104    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/ad4ff6
CONDENSED MATTER: STRUCTURAL, MECHANICAL, AND THERMAL PROPERTIES Prev   Next  

Step-edge-guided nucleation and growth mode transition of α-Ga2O3 heteroepitaxy on vicinal sapphire

Jinggang Hao(郝景刚)1,2, Yanfang Zhang(张彦芳)2,3, Yijun Zhang(张贻俊)2, Ke Xu(徐科)1,5,†, Genquan Han(韩根全)4,5,‡, and Jiandong Ye(叶建东)2,§
1 Test & Analysis Platform, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China;
2 School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China;
3 Wuxi Institute of Technology, Wuxi 214121, China;
4 School of Microelectronics, Xidian University, Xi'an 710071, China;
5 Suzhou National Laboratory for Materials Science, Jiangsu Institute of Advanced Semiconductors, Suzhou 215123, China
Abstract  Controlling the epitaxial growth mode of semiconductor layers is crucial for optimizing material properties and device performance. In this work, the growth mode of $\alpha $-Ga$_{2}$O$_{3}$ heteroepitaxial layers was modulated by tuning miscut angles ($\mathrm{\theta })$ from 0$^\circ$ to 7$^\circ$ off the (10$\bar 1$0) direction of sapphire (0002) substrate. On flat sapphire surfaces, the growth undergoes a typical three-dimensional (3D) growth mode due to the random nucleation on wide substrate terraces, as evidenced by the hillock morphology and high dislocation densities. As the miscut angle increases to $\theta =5^\circ$, the terrace width of sapphire substrate is comparable to the distance between neighboring nuclei, and consequently, the nucleation is guided by terrace edges, which energetically facilitates the growth mode transition into the desirable two-dimensional (2D) coherent growth. Consequently, the mean surface roughness decreases to only 0.62 nm, accompanied by a significant reduction in screw and edge dislocations to 0.16$\times 10^{7}$ cm$^{-2}$ and 3.58$\times10^{9}$ cm$^{-2}$, respectively. However, the further increment of miscut angles to $\theta =7^\circ$ shrink the terrace width less than nucleation distance, and the step-bunching growth mode is dominant. In this circumstance, the misfit strain is released in the initial growth stage, resulting in surface morphology degradation and increased dislocation densities.
Keywords:  growth mode      miscut angle      crystalline quality      surface morphology  
Received:  08 April 2024      Revised:  21 May 2024      Accepted manuscript online: 
PACS:  61.72.uj (III-V and II-VI semiconductors)  
  61.72.Bb (Theories and models of crystal defects)  
  68.35.Ct (Interface structure and roughness)  
  61.72.Ff (Direct observation of dislocations and other defects (etch pits, decoration, electron microscopy, x-ray topography, etc.))  
Fund: Project supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2022YFB3605403), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 62234007, 62241407, 62293521, 62304238, 62241407, U21A20503, and U21A2071), the Key-Area Research and Development Program of Guangdong Province, China (Grant No. 2020B010174002), and the Cultivation Project for Youth Teachers in Jiangsu Province, and Jiangsu Funding Program for Excellent Postdoctoral Talent.
Corresponding Authors:  Ke Xu, Genquan Han, Jiandong Ye     E-mail:  kxu2006@sinano.ac.cn;gqhan@xidian.edu.cn;yejd@nju.edu.cn

Cite this article: 

Jinggang Hao(郝景刚), Yanfang Zhang(张彦芳), Yijun Zhang(张贻俊), Ke Xu(徐科), Genquan Han(韩根全), and Jiandong Ye(叶建东) Step-edge-guided nucleation and growth mode transition of α-Ga2O3 heteroepitaxy on vicinal sapphire 2024 Chin. Phys. B 33 086104

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