Epitaxial rare earth oxide and nitride buffers for GaN growth on Si

Abstract

AbstractThe erbium oxide and nitride layers were grown as a buffer for GaN on Si(111). Engineering of the nucleation layer on the oxide plays a crucial role in the quality of the GaN layer. The intermediate erbium nitride layer with lattice constant between that of GaN and Si additionally reduces the semiconductor layer lattice mismatch to the substrate and prevents direct bonding of gallium atoms with the oxygen of the rare‐earth oxide. The crystal structure and surface morphology of epitaxial single crystal gallium nitride layer grown on the buffer improves with the semiconductor layer thickness. (© 2014 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)