Materials Science Forum Vols. 600-603

Abstract: A sublimation epitaxial method, referred to as the Closed Space Technique (CST) was adopted to produce AlN epitaxial layers. In this study, we report the surface morphology of AlN epitaxial layer grown on various substrates such as 3C-SiC (100), 4H-SiC (0001) with 8o off-axis (0001) plane tilted toward the <11 2 0> direction and on-axis 4H-SiC (0001). An average growth rate of AlN layer at 2350oC in 500 Torr of N2 was measured to be about 6μm/hr. While AlN layer grown on the 3C-SiC (100) substrate at 2350oC exhibited polycrystalline structure, AlN epitaxial layer grown on on-axis and off-axis 4H-SiC (0001) substrates had highly c-axis oriented epitaxial structure. In particular, the stacked structure of hexagonal plates was observed on off-axis substrate and the size of the hexagonal plates increased with growth time. Hexagonal plates were observed to be coalesced and the step-bunching was finally disappeared.

Abstract: Aluminum nitride thin films were deposited on polycrystalline 3C-SiC intermediate layer by pulsed reactive magnetron sputtering system. Characteristics of AlN/SiC structures were investigated experimentally by means of FE-SEM, AFM, X-ray diffraction, and FT-IR. The columnar structure of AlN thin films was observed by FE-SEM. The surface roughness of AlN films on 3C-SiC layer was measured using AFM. X-ray diffraction pattern of AlN films on SiC layers highly were oriented as (002). Full width of half maximum (FWHM) of the rocking curve around (002) reflections was 1.3°. It was determined from infrared absorbance spectrum that the residual stress of AlN thin films grown on SiC layers was almost free. The presented results show that AlN thin films on 3C-SiC buffer layers can be used for various applications.

Abstract: We characterized the HVPE grown freestanding GaN crystals with various shallow impurity concentrations by Raman scattering spectroscopy. Electrical properties such as free carrier density were examined for the GaN crystals through Raman measurements of the A1 LO-phonon plasmon coupled (LOPC) mode and its line shape analysis. The asymmetric broadening and the up-shift of the LOPC band were clearly observed as the carrier density increased from 1017 to 1019 cm-3. The line shape analysis revealed that the carrier density in the GaN crystals can be simply estimated from measured frequency shift of LOPC mode. The variations of the width for TO phonon bands were also observed in this carrier density range. The band widths were slightly increased by 0.2 cm-1 as the impurity concentration increased from 1018 to 1019 cm-3 in samples with low dislocation density.

Abstract: Minority- and majority-carrier traps were studied in GaN pn junctions grown homoepitaxially by MOCVD on n+ GaN substrates. Two majority-carrier traps (MA1,MA2) and three minority-carrier traps (MI1, MI2, MI3) were detected by deep-level transient spectroscopy. MA1 and MA2 are electron traps commonly observed in n GaN on n+ GaN and sapphire substrates. No dislocation-related traps were observed in n GaN on n+ GaN. Among five traps in GaN pn on GaN, MI3 is the main trap with the concentration of 2.5x1015 cm-3.

Abstract: Defect related carrier recombination and transport properties have been investigated in differently doped HVPE GaN substrates and CVD diamond layers. Carrier generation by interband transitions or by deep-defect photoexcitation were realized for studies of GaN samples by using picosecond pulses at 351 nm or 527 nm. This allowed to create favorable conditions for radiative and nonradiative recombination in the crystals and reveal peculiarities of photoelectrical properties of high and low density plasma in undoped, doped, and compensated GaN. In CVD diamonds, carrier diffusion length was found equal to ~ 0.5 μm and non-dependent on nitrogen density, while the carrier lifetime varied from 0.2 to 0.6 ns.

Abstract: We have measured cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra in the vicinity of V-defects in InGaN single-quantum-well(SQW) films at nanometer level, using newly developed CL apparatus (SE-SEM-CL). From spectroscopic CL measurement, it has been found that the spectra change dramatically in the vicinity of V-defects in the region of £50nm. The SE-SEM-CL has a potential to detect the CL spectral variation at spatial resolution with £50nm.

Abstract: We have studied InGaN single-quantum-well (SQW) films using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy. It has been found that a screw dislocations (SDs) distribution in the height image by AFM is well correlated with images of the CL spectra at about 440nm assigned to the spontaneous emission from the InGaN SQW. These results at least mean an existence of non-radiative recombination centers within the InGaN SQW films. It has been also found that the average period of the peak-intensity and the FWHM change is smaller than that of the peak-wavelength change assigned to InN mole fluctuations. These results suggest that the exciton diffusion length of the spontaneous emission at about 440nm is not larger than the average period of InN mole fluctuations in the InGaN SQW.

Abstract: Material properties of GaN thin films grown on 3C-SiC/semiconductor-on-insulator (SOI) substrate, by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition technology, are studied by X-ray diffraction, photoluminescence and Raman scattering, with data indicating the high quality of GaN films. Our results have shown that SiC/SOI structures obtained by carbonization have the potential to serve as useful substrates for GaN growth.

Abstract: Epitaxial growth of AlN was carried out by MOVPE method on SiC/Si buffered substrates prepared by using various Si surfaces of (110), (211) and (001). Cross-sectional HRTEM analyses of the interfaces between SiC buffer layer and AlN epitaxial layer disclosed characteristic nanostructures related growth mechanism on the each substrate. In the case of Si(110) and Si(211) substrate, hexagonal AlN grew directly on SiC(111) plane with AlN(0001) plane parallel to it. In contrast, growth on Si(001) substrate gave complicate structure at AlN/SiC interface. Hexagonal AlN didn’t grow directly but cubic AlN appeared with a pyramidal shape on SiC(001). When the cubic AlN grew 10nm in height, structure of growing AlN crystal changed to hexagonal type on the pyramidal {111} planes of cubic AlN.

Abstract: We report on the 288 V-10 V DC- DC converter circuit using AlGaN/GaN HFETs for the first time. The AlGaN/GaN HFET with a large current and a high breakdown voltage operation was fabricated. That is, the maximum drain current was over 50 A, and the minimum on-resistance was 70 mohm. The breakdown voltage was over 600 V. A DC-DC down-converter from input DC 288 V to output DC 10 V was fabricated using these HFETs. It was confirmed that the switching speed of the AlGaN/GaN HFET was faster than that of Si MOSFET. The DC-DC down-converter was fabricated using these HFETs. This converter was composed of a full bridge circuit using four n-channel AlGaN/GaN HFETs. In the case of AlGaN/GaN HFET, a gate switching wave (Vgs) and source-drain wave (Vds) were abrupt compared with those of using Si MOSFETs. In both cases, a stable and constant output DC 10V was also obtained and the conversion efficiency of the converters with AlGaN/GaN HFETs was 84%.