A study of initial growth mechanism of c-GaN on GaAs(1 0 0) by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

The surface morphology of several kinds of buffer layers, nitrided GaAs(100), low-temperature GaN, GaAs buffer layer, and GaAlAs buffer layer, is investigated for growing c-GaN using GaAs(100) by molecular beam epitaxy. The possibility of an epitaxial GaAlAs buffer layer for growing high-quality c-GaN on GaAs(100) is considered. A c-GaN film with a few h-GaN imperfections is successfully grown on a GaAs buffer layer, and the occurrence of h-GaN is drastically reduced by introducing an epitaxial GaAs buffer layer.