Kinetic study of Al-mole fraction in AlxGa1−xN grown on c-plane sapphire and AlN bulk substrates by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy

Abstract

A systematic study is performed on the dependence of the Al-mole fraction in AlxGa1−xN on the organometallic group-III precursor flow during metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy. When keeping the total organometallic volume flow constant, a nonlinear concave bowing relationship is found between the Al-mole fraction (for 0⩽x⩽1) and the relative trimethylaluminum volume flow. A kinetic model, which takes into account the growth rate ratio between GaN and AlN (gGaN∕gAlN), is developed to explain such concave bowing relationship. The experimental data are in excellent agreement with the theoretical model. For AlxGa1−xN growth on AlN bulk substrates, it is found that the Al-mole fraction is smaller and the growth rate ratio is larger than on sapphire substrates. The authors also investigate the incorporation of Al in AlxGa1−xN as a function of the group-III precursor molar flow rate. A positive convex bowing relationship is found between Al-mole fraction and the relative trimethylaluminum molar flow, which is consistent with our model.