Growth of GaN and InGaN layers by rapid thermal MOCVD

Abstract

A major limitation in the growth of InGaN–GaN heterostructures is the requirement for cyclic ramping of the growth temperature of ∼200 °C. In conventional systems this temperature ramping is slow, and part of the InGaN layer may degrade before next GaN layer is deposited. We present here data from a novel growth system that overcomes this limitation and allows the growth of a higher quality GaN and InGaN layers than produced in our system by a conventional process. The system is based on Rapid Thermal MOCVD (RT-MOCVD) in which two sets of high power tungsten–halogen lamps were used to radiatively heat a low thermal mass susceptor with ramp rates up to ∼250 °C/s. This allows the fabrication of heterostructures by using temperature as a switch in starting or terminating a process step rather than applying the gas phase switching technique normally used in the standard MOCVD technique. (© 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)