Photoassisted growth of gallium nitride by gas source molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract

Thin films of GaN have been achieved via gas source molecular beam epitaxy with and without substrate illumination from a 500 W Hg arc lamp. X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy showed a nominally stoichiometric GaN film without contaminants regardless of illumination. Illumination and Ga cell temperature changed the texture of the polycrystalline GaN from (0001)∥(100) to (0001)∥(111) and back again. Near single crystal films were deposited with an orientation relationship of w‐GaN (0001)∥β‐SiC (100) and (1010)∥(011). Resulting films were characterized by scanning electron microscopy as well as x‐ray and electron diffraction.