The critical role of N-vacancy on chemical composition fluctuations and degradation of InAlN layer

Abstract

Due to its intrinsic properties and the possible lattice match to GaN, InAlN is expected to allow the fabrication of optimal high electron mobility transistors for high power and high frequency applications. However, the crystal quality of InAlN nearly lattice-matched to GaN degrades when the layer thickness is increased, and this is a strong limitation for the fabrication of devices in which thick barriers need to be used. In this work, we have carried out a detailed theoretical investigation of the behavior of indium atoms in the alloy. It is clearly shown that in the presence of nitrogen vacancies, which are common defects in these materials, indium nitride clusters will present excess formation energy up to diameters around 1.4 nm. In parallel, Z-contrast TEM observations close to the InAlN/GaN interface show that 2–5 nm size indium rich areas form and are systematically connected to the vertical degradation channels. This is at variance with published results, which concluded that the observed degradation was exclusively either due to the underlying threading dislocations or due to a characteristic three-dimensional growth mode.