Gallium Nitride Film Growth Using a Plasma Based Migration Enhanced Afterglow Chemical Vapor Deposition System

Butcher, Kenneth; Kemp, Brad W.; Hristov, Ilian B.; Terziyska, P.; Binsted, Peter W.; Alexandrov, Dimiter

doi:10.1143/jjap.51.01af02

“…This happens before starting the growth at a temperature of 750 °C with plasma-generated NH x species in situ, instead of ammonia as the nitrogen source. Such a process is an efficient and low-cost means to make a high-quality GaN/AlGaN heterostructure in a more sustainable way as compared to conventional semiconductor epitaxial growth techniques, having potential applications in GaN-based electronics. − …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-Temperature and Ammonia-Free Epitaxy of the GaN/AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure

Tobaldi

¹

,

Triminì

²

,

Cretı̀

³

et al. 2021

ACS Appl. Electron. Mater.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wide band gap semiconductors are very attractive because of their broad applications as electronics and optoelectronics materials − GaN-based materials being by far the most promising. For the production of such nitride-based optical and power devices, metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) is routinely used. However, this has disadvantages, such as the large consumption of ammonia gas, and the need for high growth temperature. To go beyond such a limit, in this study we successfully developed a remote plasma assisted MOCVD (RPA-MOCVD) approach for the epitaxial growth of high-quality GaN/AlGaN heterostructures on 4H-SiC substrates. Our RPA-MOCVD has the advantages of lower growth temperature (750 °C) compared to conventional MOCVD route, and the use of a remote N2/H2 plasma instead of ammonia for nitrides growth, generating in situ the NHx (x = 0−3) species needed for the growth. As assessed by structural, morphological, optical and electrical characterisation, the proposed strategy provides an overall cost-effective and green approach for high-quality GaN/AlGaN heteroepitaxy, suitable for high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) technology.

show abstract

“…It is believed that the crystalline quality could be further promoted after introducing 2D materials on the surface of flexible substrates, which can be called LT‐vdWE. In addition to ALD, numerous original methods have come up in recent years, such as remote plasma chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD), plasma based migration enhanced afterglow chemical vapor deposition (MEAglow), electron cyclotron resonance plasma‐enhanced metal organic chemical vapor deposition (ECR‐PEMOCVD), radical‐enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (REMOCVD), ion‐filtered inductively coupled‐plasma metal organic chemical vapor deposition (IF‐ICP‐MOCVD), pulsed sputtering deposition (PSD), etc. The common characteristic of these different methods is the cracking of the precursors and reactant by introducing external physical fields.…”

Section: Concluding Remarks and Outlookmentioning

confidence: 99%

Van der Waals Epitaxy of III‐Nitride Semiconductors Based on 2D Materials for Flexible Applications

Yu

¹

,

Wang

²

,

Hao

³

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

to 6.2 eV for AlN, [3] which spans the entire ultraviolet and visible band [4][5][6][7] as well as the near-infrared region. [8,9] Accordingly, III-nitrides have been widely adopted for the fabrication of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), [10][11][12] laser diodes (LDs), [13][14][15] photodetectors (PDs), [16][17][18] and solar cells. [19][20][21] Furthermore, the spontaneous and piezoelectric polarization in wurtzite semiconductors [22][23][24][25] and the high electron drift velocities [26][27][28] can be used to fabricate high electron mobility transistors based on two-dimensional (2D) electron gas (2DEG) in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. [29][30][31][32] At present, by employing metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), [3,[33][34][35] molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), [36][37][38][39] or hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE), [40][41][42] III-nitride films with high crystalline quality can be obtained on c-plane sapphire, [43][44][45] Si (111), [38,[46][47][48] or 6H-SiC [49][50][51] substrates at a high growth temperature, usually above 1000 °C. [52][53][54] However, exfoliating III-nitride films from such single-crystalline substrates proves difficult because of the strong sp 3 -type covalent bonds between the substrates and epilayers. [55] To overcome this problem, thermal release through laser radiation, [56,57] stamp-based printing, [58,59] chemical etching, [60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67] and mechanical exfoliation [54,55,68,69] from singlecrystalline substrates have been investigated. However, there still remain some bottlenecks for future applications, such as damage, limited size, and tedious steps of the flexible production process. [55] Furthermore, flexible amorphous substrates generally cannot tolerate such high growth temperature, [54] and cannot be used for epitaxial growth of single-crystalline films because of the unordered surface atomic arrangement. [70,71] Hence, it is extremely difficult to make allowance for wearable and foldable applications of next-generation (opto)electronic devices based on III-nitrides. [72] On the other hand, sp 2 -bonded 2D materials (e.g., graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, and transition metal dichalcogenides) exhibit hexagonal in-plane lattice arrangements and weakly bonded layers. [54,73,74] If sp 3 -bonded III-nitride films can somehow be grown on sp 2 -bonded 2D materials, it is theoretically possible to transfer these functional films onto foreign flexible substrates because of the weak van der Waals interactions on both sides of the 2D materials. [68,75,76] In this case, the 2D materials not only act as a buffer layer but also provide a release layer for the mechanical exfoliation of solid-state lighting, flat-panel displays, and solar energy and power electronics. Generally, GaN-based devices are heteroepitaxially grown on c-plane sapphire, Si (111), or 6H-SiC substrates. However, it is very difficult to release the GaN-based films from such single-crystalline substrates and transfer them onto other foreign substrates. Consequently, it is difficult to meet t...

show abstract

“…Such a process is an efficient and low-cost means to make high-quality GaN/AlGaN heterostructure in a more sustainable way as compared to conventional semiconductor epitaxial growth techniques, having potential applications in GaN-based electronics. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16]…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-temperature and ammonia-free epitaxy of GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure

Tobaldi

¹

,

Triminì

²

,

Cretı̀

³

et al. 2021

Preprint

0

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Wide band gap semiconductors are very attractive because of their broad applications as electronics and optoelectronics materials − GaN-based materials being by far the most promising. For the production of such nitride-based optical and power devices, metal-organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD) is routinely used. However, this has disadvantages, such as the large consumption of ammonia gas, and the need for high growth temperature. To go beyond such a limit, in this study we successfully developed a remote plasma assisted MOCVD (RPA-MOCVD) approach for the epitaxial growth of high-quality GaN/AlGaN heterostructures on 4H-SiC substrates. Our RPA-MOCVD has the advantages of lower growth temperature (750 °C) compared to conventional MOCVD route, and the use of a remote N2/H2 plasma instead of ammonia for nitrides growth, generating in situ the NHx (x = 0−3) species needed for the growth. As assessed by structural, morphological, optical and electrical characterisation, the proposed strategy provides an overall cost-effective and green approach for high-quality GaN/AlGaN heteroepitaxy, suitable for high electron mobility transistors (HEMT) technology.

show abstract

Gallium Nitride Film Growth Using a Plasma Based Migration Enhanced Afterglow Chemical Vapor Deposition System

Cited by 14 publications

References 26 publications

Low-Temperature and Ammonia-Free Epitaxy of the GaN/AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure

Low-Temperature and Ammonia-Free Epitaxy of the GaN/AlGaN/GaN Heterostructure

Van der Waals Epitaxy of III‐Nitride Semiconductors Based on 2D Materials for Flexible Applications

Low-temperature and ammonia-free epitaxy of GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructure

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About