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Influence of growth orientation on microstructure of AlN grown by solid-source solution growth (3SG) method

Yoshihiro Kangawa 1Shunro Nagata 2Boris Epelbaum 3Koichi Kakimoto 1

1. Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan
2. JFE Mineral Co., Ltd., Chiba 260-0826, Japan
3. University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Inst. for Material Science, Martensstr. 7, Erlangen 91058, Germany

Abstract

 Al(Ga)N is a candidate material for an optoelectronic device such as a deep UV-LED (Light Emitting Diode). In order to fabricate the Al(Ga)N device with low dislocation density, it is indispensable to develop a high quality AlN substrate. Recently, bulk AlN with low dislocation density was produced by PVT (Physical Vapor Transport). However, the growth process requires high temperatures exceed 2000ºC. We consider an another possibility, i.e., solution growth, to produce AlN template. Solution growth was generally performed under low temperatures, thus it may reduce the production cost of the crystal. In the present study, we discuss the crystalline quality of AlN grown by our original solution growth method.

 In 2011, we have developed a solid-source solution growth (3SG) method which used Li3N as a nitrogen source instead of N2 gas [1]. In this method, we can control a nitrogen composition of the source materials, i.e., Al-Li3N mixture. We confirmed that a 5mm-thick AlN epitaxial layer grew on AlN seed crystal along [1-100] under the condition of Al:Li3N = 4:1. The TD density in the seed crystal was below the detection limit of TEM analysis. Though dense threading dislocations (TDs) were generated in the initial stage of 3SG (TD density = 109 cm-2), it was decreased to 108 cm-2 at 5mm-thick region. Next, we grew AlN by 3SG on the AlN(0001) substrate which was grown by PVT. In this experiment, the TD density was decreased from 109 to 108 cm-2 at 2mm-thick region. That is, an annihilation ratio of TDs during the growth along [0001] was larger than that in the case of [1-100]. This is due to the difference in annihilation mechanisms of TDs. The TDs were annihilated by forming half-loops when the growth direction was [1-100]. On the other hand, the TDs were annihilated by forming bundle structures in the latter case. These results imply that the growth along [0001] is better than that along [1-100] to obtain a low dislocation density crystal by 3SG.

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by a JST PRESTO program.

References

[1] Y. Kangawa et al., Appl. Phys. Express 4 (2011) 095501.

 

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Related papers

Presentation: Oral at 17th International Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy - ICCGE-17, Topical Session 3, by Yoshihiro Kangawa
See On-line Journal of 17th International Conference on Crystal Growth and Epitaxy - ICCGE-17

Submitted: 2013-03-04 04:49
Revised:   2013-03-04 04:51