The influence of growth temperature and V/III-ratio on the surface morphology of (001) cubic zincblende GaN epilayers during metal organic vapour phase epitaxy growth has been investigated using atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The zincblende phase purity as determined by X-ray diffraction was found to be above 98% for most GaN epilayers studied. As the growth temperature was increased from 850 °C to 910 °C and as the V/III-ratio was separately increased from 38 to 300, surface features were found to be elongated in the [1-10] direction, and the ratio of the length to width of such surface features was found to increase. Faceting was observed at V/III-ratios below 38 and above 300, which in the latter case was accompanied by a reduction of the zincblende phase purity. An explanation for these morphological trends is proposed based on effects such as the reduced symmetry of the top monolayer of the (001)-oriented zincblende GaN lattice, diffusion of Ga and N adatoms on such a surface, and the relative energies of the crystal facets.
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
14 September 2018
Research Article|
September 11 2018
Effect of growth temperature and V/III-ratio on the surface morphology of MOVPE-grown cubic zincblende GaN
Lok Yi Lee
;
1
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: lyl24@cam.ac.uk
Search for other works by this author on:
Martin Frentrup;
Martin Frentrup
b)
1
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom
Search for other works by this author on:
Menno J. Kappers;
Menno J. Kappers
1
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom
Search for other works by this author on:
Rachel A. Oliver
;
Rachel A. Oliver
1
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom
Search for other works by this author on:
Colin J. Humphreys
;
Colin J. Humphreys
1
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom
2
School of Engineering and Materials Science, Queen Mary University of London
, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom
Search for other works by this author on:
David J. Wallis
David J. Wallis
1
Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, University of Cambridge
, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge CB3 0FS, United Kingdom
3
Centre for High Frequency Engineering, University of Cardiff
, 5 The Parade, Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 3AA, United Kingdom
Search for other works by this author on:
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: lyl24@cam.ac.uk
b)
L. Y. Lee and M. Frentrup contributed equally to this work.
J. Appl. Phys. 124, 105302 (2018)
Article history
Received:
July 02 2018
Accepted:
August 23 2018
Citation
Lok Yi Lee, Martin Frentrup, Menno J. Kappers, Rachel A. Oliver, Colin J. Humphreys, David J. Wallis; Effect of growth temperature and V/III-ratio on the surface morphology of MOVPE-grown cubic zincblende GaN. J. Appl. Phys. 14 September 2018; 124 (10): 105302. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5046801
Download citation file:
Sign in
Don't already have an account? Register
Sign In
You could not be signed in. Please check your credentials and make sure you have an active account and try again.
Sign in via your Institution
Sign in via your InstitutionPay-Per-View Access
$40.00
Citing articles via
Related Content
Investigation of stacking faults in MOVPE-grown zincblende GaN by XRD and TEM
J. Appl. Phys. (March 2019)
Investigation of wurtzite formation in MOVPE-grown zincblende GaN epilayers on AlxGa1−xN nucleation layers
J. Appl. Phys. (March 2022)
Multimicroscopy of cross-section zincblende GaN LED heterostructure
J. Appl. Phys. (September 2021)
Alloy segregation at stacking faults in zincblende GaN heterostructures
J. Appl. Phys. (October 2020)
Defect structures in (001) zincblende GaN/3C-SiC nucleation layers
J. Appl. Phys. (April 2021)