In-grown and irradiation-induced Al and N vacancies in 100 keV H+ implanted AlN single crystals

Abstract

We report positron annihilation results on in-grown and proton-irradiation-induced vacancy defects in AlN single crystals grown by physical vapor transport. The samples were irradiated with 100 keV H+ ions to varying fluences in the range of 5 × 1014 − 2 × 1018 ions cm–2. Doppler broadening of annihilation radiation was recorded in as-grown and irradiated samples with a slow positron beam with varying implantation energy. Doppler results combined with first principles theoretical calculations show that the 100 keV H+ irradiation introduces isolated VAl on the ion track and VN-rich vacancy clusters at the end of the ion range. The results suggest that the excess amount of detected VN originates from a high concentration of in-grown VN. So far, these defects have been considered to be unidentified negative ion-like defects in AlN.