High Resolution X-Ray Diffraction Analysis Of Gallium Nitride Grown On Sapphire By Halide Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Abstract

AbstractWe report a structural analysis of GaN layers with thicknesses ranging from 10 μm to 250 μm which have been grown on sapphire substrates by halide vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). The effect of growth rate during HVPE growth has also been examined. The growth was performed using GaCl and ammonia as reactants; growth rates in excess of 90 μm/hr have been achieved. The structural characteristics of these layers have been performed wit'i high resolution x-ray diffractometry. Longitudinal scans parallel to the GaN [0002] direction, transverse scans perpendicular to the [0002], and reciprocal space maps of the total diffracted intensity have been obtained from a variety of GaN layers. The transverse scans typically show broad rocking curves with peak breadths of several hundreds of arcseconds. In contrast, the longitudinal scans (or “θ/2θ scans”) which are sensitive only to strains in the GaN layers (and not their mosaic distributions) showed peak widths that were at least an order of magnitude smaller and in some cases were as narrow as 16 arcseconds. These results suggest that the defect structure of the GaN layers grown by HVPE is dominated by a dislocation-induced mosaic distribution, with the effects of strain in these materials being negligible in comparison.