Control polarity of gallium nitride on Si (1 1 1) using atomic layer annealing and thermal atomic layer deposition

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Ga-polar GaN thin films and N-polar GaN thin films were fabricated by using thermal ALD and plasma assisted ALA processes, respectively. The polarity of GaN wurtzite thin films was determined by cross-sectional STEM analysis of as-deposited films and top-view SEM images after KOH wet-etching. The crystallinity and grain size of thermal ALD GaN were drastically increased with the GaN ALA buffer layer. The ALA Ar plasma pulse in each ALD cycle decreased the oxygen and carbon impurity content and improved the crystallinity of GaN thin films by removing organic ligands. High purity GaN thin films were successfully deposited on oxide-free Si (111) substrate by using the ALA process with 100 ms of TDMAGa with push gas, 3 × 800 ms of N2H4, and 15 s of 25 W ALA plasma pulse with −25 V stage DC bias at 275 °C. The lowest FWHM value (0.59°), smooth surface morphology (RMS=1.0 nm), and 10–20 nm grain size of columnar GaN thin films were obtained by tuning process parameters.