Deposition of indium nitride by low energy modulated indium and nitrogen ion beams

Abstract

Indium nitride deposition on Si(100) using modulated In+ and N+2 has been carried out in a mass-separated low energy ion beam system. In+ and N+2 were generated in a Colutron ion source loaded with pure indium and fed with nitrogen, and were focused into a Wien filter. The mass analyzer was switched manually or by a computer for modulating the selection of In+ and N+2. After passing through the Wien filter, the selected ion beam was focused to the target chamber and was decelerated by a five-element deceleration lens in front of the target. In situ x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used for film characterization. The spectral data confirmed the formation of InNx but the x value was less than unity for films prepared using ion energies of 5–100 eV and In/N dose ratios of 2–6. For example, the film prepared with an In/N ratio of 1/6 at a beam energy of 5 eV showed a composition of InN0.4. It was found that argon ion sputtering of this film at 1 keV and at a polar angle of 80° further depleted the nitrogen content and changed the composition to InN0.17. The argon bombardment result suggests that nitrogen depletion in the indium nitride films prepared by ion beam deposition in this study may be induced by ion bombardment during the film growth. In addition to this problem, it was also found that nitrogen bombardment in the early stage of film deposition led to the nitridation of the substrate. The damage of the crystallinity of the substrate is likely to prevent heteroepitaxial growth of InN on Si.

Low-temperature self-limiting atomic layer deposition of wurtzite InN on Si(100)

“…34,35 This observed difference in stoichiometry from surface and bulk of the films have been explained by preferential sputtering of N atoms by Ar + ions used to sputter and depth profile the film of interest. Despite the fact that Ar + ion etching of InN does not provide information about stoichiometry from the bulk of the film due to limitation of preferential etching, it is a suitable method to estimate impurity concentration within the bulk of the film.…”

“…Bello et al showed that the most probable formations in InN other than indium-nitride are oxynitrides. 35 Any form of N-O bonding will appear in the spectra at higher binding energy with respect to the main peak (396.4 eV), i.e., the shoulder peak can be attributed to the presence of In-O bond. 36,37 XPS-measured valence band spectrum of HCPA-ALD grown sample was obtained in order to extract information about electronic structure of the InN sample (Fig.…”

Laser-assisted chemical vapor deposition of InN on Si(100)

“…The SiN bond strength is strong and the SiNx species was formed during the surface photolysis of HN 3 on Si. 1 2 The SiNx was also found in the InN film deposition process using In+ and N 2 + ion beams, 11 where an atomic ratio of less than 0.4 was reported for N:ln as alluded to above. In the present study, we found that the In:N ratio is -0.9, which becomes 1.1 if the 398.3 eV component is excluded.…”

“…3 Other methods, such as reactive rf-sputtering and ion plating have also been tried in order to produce the InN films. 7 -10 Using low energy In+ and N 2 + ion beams, Bello et al 11 were able to grow InN on a Si(100) surface; however, the resulting InN showed an N:ln atomic ratio of <0.4. The growing of InN films on Si substrates is more difficult probably because of lattice mismatch and silicon nitride formation.…”