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Smooth surface morphology and low dislocation density of p-GaN using indium-assisted growth

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Abstract

Mg-doped, 1-μm-thick, p-type GaN films were grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition using indium-assisted method. The influence of flow rate ratio of indium to magnesium (In/Mg ratio) on the quality of p-GaN thin films was investigated by atomic force microscope, X-ray diffraction, Hall measurement and secondary ion mass spectroscopy. The surface roughness, crystalline quality and hole concentrations of p-GaN present a different variation tendency below and above 0.183 In/Mg ratio. The evolution process of indium-adlayer model considering adsorption, desorption and the transformation of indium mono-adlayer was proposed to explain the above phenomenon. Indium-assisted growth method can improve surface smoothness and crystalline quality of p-GaN effectively without affecting its electrical properties.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61223005, No. 61076045, No. 11004020), National High Technology Research and Development Program (863 program) (No. 2011AA03A102), the fundamental research funds for the central universities (Nos. DUT12LK22, DUT11LK43, DUT11RC(3)45, DUT13RC205), the research fund for the doctoral program of higher education (No. 20110041120045), the open fund of the state key laboratory of functional materials for informatics.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China

    Kexiong Zhang, Hongwei Liang, Rensheng Shen, Shiwei Song, Dongsheng Wang, Yang Liu, Xiaochuan Xia, Yingmin Luo & Guotong Du

  2. State Key Laboratory on Integrated Optoelectronics, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Dechao Yang & Guotong Du

  3. State Key Laboratory of Functional Materials for Informatics, Shanghai Institute of Microsystem and Information Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 865 Changning Road, Shanghai, 200050, China

    Hongwei Liang

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  1. Kexiong Zhang
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Correspondence to Kexiong Zhang.

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Zhang, K., Liang, H., Shen, R. et al. Smooth surface morphology and low dislocation density of p-GaN using indium-assisted growth. Appl. Phys. A 116, 1561–1566 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-014-8384-5

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