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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    Step-flow growth in homoepitaxy of β-Ga2O3 (100)—The influence of the miscut direction and faceting
    (Melville, NY : AIP Publ., 2019) Schewski, R.; Lion, K.; Fiedler, A.; Wouters, C.; Popp, K.; Levchenko, S.V.; Schulz, T.; Schmidbauer, M.; Bin Anooz, S.; Grüneberg, R.; Galazka, Z.; Wagner, G.; Irmscher, K.; Scheffler, M.; Draxl, C.; Albrecht, M.
    We present a systematic study on the influence of the miscut orientation on structural and electronic properties in the homoepitaxial growth on off-oriented β-Ga2O3 (100) substrates by metalorganic chemical vapour phase epitaxy. Layers grown on (100) substrates with 6° miscut toward the [001⎯⎯] direction show high electron mobilities of about 90 cm2 V−1 s−1 at electron concentrations in the range of 1–2 × 1018 cm−3, while layers grown under identical conditions but with 6° miscut toward the [001] direction exhibit low electron mobilities of around 10 cm2 V−1 s−1. By using high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy, we find significant differences in the surface morphologies of the substrates after annealing and of the layers in dependence on their miscut direction. While substrates with miscuts toward [001⎯⎯] exhibit monolayer steps terminated by (2⎯⎯01) facets, mainly bilayer steps are found for miscuts toward [001]. Epitaxial growth on both substrates occurs in step-flow mode. However, while layers on substrates with a miscut toward [001⎯⎯] are free of structural defects, those on substrates with a miscut toward [001] are completely twinned with respect to the substrate and show stacking mismatch boundaries. This twinning is promoted at step edges by transformation of the (001)-B facets into (2⎯⎯01) facets. Density functional theory calculations of stoichiometric low index surfaces show that the (2⎯⎯01) facet has the lowest surface energy following the (100) surface. We conclude that facet transformation at the step edges is driven by surface energy minimization for the two kinds of crystallographically inequivalent miscut orientations in the monoclinic lattice of β-Ga2O3.
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    Faceting and metal-exchange catalysis in (010) β-Ga2O3 thin films homoepitaxially grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy
    (New York : American Institute of Physics, 2018) Mazzolini, P.; Vogt, P.; Schewski, R.; Wouters, C.; Albrecht, M.; Bierwagen, Oliver
    We here present an experimental study on (010)-oriented -Ga2O3 thin films homoepitaxially grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. We study the effect of substrate treatments (i.e., O-plasma and Ga-etching) and several deposition parameters (i.e., growth temperature and metal-to-oxygen flux ratio) on the resulting Ga2O3 surface morphology and growth rate. In situ and ex-situ characterizations identified the formation of (110) and (¯110)-facets on the nominally oriented (010) surface induced by the Ga-etching of the substrate and by several growth conditions, suggesting (110) to be a stable (yet unexplored) substrate orientation. Moreover, we demonstrate how metal-exchange catalysis enabled by an additional In-flux significantly increases the growth rate (>threefold increment) of monoclinic Ga2O3 at high growth temperatures, while maintaining a low surface roughness (rms < 0.5 nm) and preventing the incorporation of In into the deposited layer. This study gives important indications for obtaining device-quality thin films and opens up the possibility to enhance the growth rate in -Ga2O3 homoepitaxy on different surfaces [e.g., (100) and (001)] via molecular beam epitaxy.
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    Intentional polarity conversion of AlN epitaxial layers by oxygen
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, 2018) Stolyarchuk, N.; Markurt, T.; Courville, A.; March, K.; Zúñiga-Pérez, J.; Vennéguès, P.; Albrecht, M.
    Nitride materials (AlN, GaN, InN and their alloys) are commonly used in optoelectronics, high-power and high-frequency electronics. Polarity is the essential characteristic of these materials: when grown along c-direction, the films may exhibit either N- or metal-polar surface, which strongly influences their physical properties. The possibility to manipulate the polarity during growth allows to establish unique polarity in nitride thin films and nanowires for existing applications but also opens up new opportunities for device applications, e.g., in non-linear optics. In this work, we show that the polarity of an AlN film can intentionally be inverted by applying an oxygen plasma. We anneal an initially mixed-polar AlN film, grown on sapphire substrate by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), with an oxygen plasma in a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) chamber; then, back in MOVPE, we deposit a 200 nm thick AlN film on top of the oxygen-treated surface. Analysis by high-resolution probe-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) imaging and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) evidences a switch of the N-polar domains to metal polarity. The polarity inversion is mediated through the formation of a thin AlxOyNz layer on the surface of the initial mixed polar film, induced by the oxygen annealing.
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    Interface polarization model for a 2-dimensional electron gas at the BaSnO3/LaInO3 interface
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2019) Kim, Young Mo; Markurt, T.; Kim, Youjung; Zupancic, M.; Shin, Juyeon; Albrecht, M.; Char, Kookrin
    In order to explain the experimental sheet carrier density n2D at the interface of BaSnO3/LaInO3, we consider a model that is based on the presence of interface polarization in LaInO3 which extends over 2 pseudocubic unit cells from the interface and eventually disappears in the next 2 unit cells. Considering such interface polarization in calculations based on 1D Poisson-Schrödinger equations, we consistently explain the dependence of the sheet carrier density of BaSnO3/LaInO3 heterinterfaces on the thickness of the LaInO3 layer and the La doping of the BaSnO3 layer. Our model is supported by a quantitative analysis of atomic position obtained from high resolution transmission electron microscopy which evidences suppression of the octahedral tilt and a vertical lattice expansion in LaInO3 over 2–3 pseudocubic unit cells at the coherently strained interface.
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    Role of hole confinement in the recombination properties of InGaN quantum structures
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2019) Anikeeva, M.; Albrecht, M.; Mahler, F.; Tomm, J. W.; Lymperakis, L.; Chèze, C.; Calarco, R.; Neugebauer, J.; Schulz, T.
    We study the isolated contribution of hole localization for well-known charge carrier recombination properties observed in conventional, polar InGaN quantum wells (QWs). This involves the interplay of charge carrier localization and non-radiative transitions, a non-exponential decay of the emission and a specific temperature dependence of the emission, denoted as “s-shape”. We investigate two dimensional In0.25Ga0.75N QWs of single monolayer (ML) thickness, stacked in a superlattice with GaN barriers of 6, 12, 25 and 50 MLs. Our results are based on scanning and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (STEM and HR-TEM), continuous-wave (CW) and time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) measurements as well as density functional theory (DFT) calculations. We show that the recombination processes in our structures are not affected by polarization fields and electron localization. Nevertheless, we observe all the aforementioned recombination properties typically found in standard polar InGaN quantum wells. Via decreasing the GaN barrier width to 6 MLs and below, the localization of holes in our QWs is strongly reduced. This enhances the influence of non-radiative recombination, resulting in a decreased lifetime of the emission, a weaker spectral dependence of the decay time and a reduced s-shape of the emission peak. These findings suggest that single exponential decay observed in non-polar QWs might be related to an increasing influence of non-radiative transitions.