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Employing Al buffer layer with Al droplets-distributed surface to obtain high-quality and stress-free GaN epitaxial films on Si substrates

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Abstract

Al buffer layers with Al droplets-distributed surface have been employed to grow high-quality and stress-free GaN epitaxial films on Si substrates. The Al droplets are proved to efficiently improve the quality of as-grown GaN. On the one hand, they can act as nucleation seeds to facilitate the epitaxial growth, improving the crystalline quality and surface morphology of as-grown GaN epitaxial films. On the other hand, they also can compensate the huge compressive stress produced by Al buffer layer during the cooling process, achieving stress-free film. The density and volume of Al droplets greatly impact the properties of as-grown GaN epitaxial films. The GaN epitaxial film grown on the Al buffer layer with many small Al droplets uniformly distributed on it shows the best crystalline quality with the full-width at half maximum (FWHM) of GaN(0002) and GaN(10–12) as 0.5° and 0.7°, respectively, and flat surface with the smallest surface root-mean-square roughness of 3.8 nm. In addition, it also exhibits relatively better photoelectric properties with an FWHM of near band gap emission peak of 18 nm, carrier concentration of 2.0 × 1017 cm−3, and mobility of 137.1 cm2/Vs. This work has revealed the advantages of Al buffer layer and the important effects of buffer layer surface on achieving high-quality GaN by PLD, which is of significance for various applications of GaN-based devices.

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars of China (No. 51422203), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51572091 and 51372001), Outstanding Youth Foundation of Guangdong Scientific Committee (No. S2013050013882), Key Project in Science and Technology of Guangdong Province (Nos. 2014B010119001, 2014B010121004, and 2011A080801018), and Strategic Special Funds for LEDs of Guangdong Province (Nos. 2011A081301010, 2011A081301012, and 2012A080302002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Luminescent Materials and Devices, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Haiyan Wang, Wenliang Wang, Weijia Yang, Yunnong Zhu, Zhiting Lin & Guoqiang Li

  2. Engineering Research Center on Solid-State Lighting and Its Informationisation of Guangdong Province, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Haiyan Wang, Wenliang Wang, Weijia Yang, Yunnong Zhu, Zhiting Lin & Guoqiang Li

  3. Department of Electronic Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Guoqiang Li

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Wang, H., Wang, W., Yang, W. et al. Employing Al buffer layer with Al droplets-distributed surface to obtain high-quality and stress-free GaN epitaxial films on Si substrates. J Mater Sci 52, 1318–1329 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-016-0427-1

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