Abstract
We report on the studies of crystallographic tilt induced by miscut of the Si (111) substrate in GaN-on-Si (111) heterostructures grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. By employing high-resolution X-ray diffraction, we found that the onset of crystallographic tilt occurred at the interface between the AlN nucleation layer and the Si (111) substrate. The orientation of the GaN overlayer always follows that of the AlN nucleation layer irrespective of its quality and miscut of the substrates. The resultant GaN [0002] is tilted toward GaN (11−20) and (10−10) atomic planes for the miscuts of Si (111) toward Si [1−10] and [11−2], respectively. In both cases, the misorientation of GaN (0002), i.e., the tilt of GaN [0002] from the surface normal direction, is in the same direction of the miscut of Si (111). The misorientation angle of the GaN epilayer is generally smaller than the miscut angle of the substrate. However, the crystallographic tilt, i.e., the angle formed between GaN [0002] and Si [111], is always much larger than the Nagai tilt. These observations are attributable to misfit dislocations that are anisotropically generated at the AlN/Si (111) interface. This mechanism is discussed based on recent microscopic observations of in-plane misfit dislocations at the interface near the atomic step edges.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Dadgar A, Schulze F, Wienecke M, Gadanecz A, Bläsing J, Veit P, Hempel T, Diez A, Christen J, Krost A (2007) Epitaxy of GaN on silicon—impact of symmetry and surface reconstruction. New J Phys 9:389
Chung JW, Ryu K, Liu B, Palacios T (2010) IEEE solid-state device research conference (ESSDERC). In: Proceedings of the European, pp 52–56
Zhu D, McAleese C, McLaughlin KK, Häberlen M, Salcianu CO, Thrush EJ, Kappers MJ, Phillips WA, Lane P, Wallis DJ, Martin T, Astles M, Thomas S, Pakes A, Heuken M, Humphreys CJ (2009) GaN-based LEDs grown on 6-inch diameter Si (111) substrates by MOVPE. Proc SPIE 7231:723118
Drechsel P, Stauss P, Bergbauer W, Rode P, Fritze S, Krost A, Markurt T, Schulz T, Albrecht M, Riechert H, Steegmüller U (2012) Impact of buffer growth on crystalline quality of GaN grown on Si(111) substrates. Phys Status Solidi A 209:427
Krost A, Dadgar A (2002) GaN-based optoelectronics on silicon substrates. Mater Sci Eng B 93:77
Taniyasu Y, Kasu M, Makimoto T (2007) Threading dislocations in heteroepitaxial AlN layer grown by MOVPE on SiC (0 0 0 1) substrate. J Cryst Growth 298:310
Dodson BW, Myers DR, Datye AK, Kaushik VS, Kendall DL, Martinez-Tovar B (1988) Asymmetric tilt boundaries and generalized heteroepitaxy. Phys Rev Lett 61:2681
Matyi RJ, Lee JW, Schaake HF (1988) Substrate orientation and processing effects on GaAs/Si misorientation in GaAs-on-Si grown by MBE. J Electron Mater 17:87
Contreras O, Ponce FA, Christen J, Dadgar A, Krost A (2002) Dislocation annihilation by silicon delta-doping in GaN epitaxy on Si. Appl Phys Lett 81:4712
Suda J, Miyake H, Amari K, Nakano Y, Kimoto T (2009) Systematic investigation of c-axis tilt in GaN and AlGaN grown on vicinal SiC(0001) substrates. Jpn J Appl Phys 48:020202
Huang XR, Bai J, Dudley M, Dupuis RD, Chowdhury U (2005) Epitaxial tilting of GaN grown on vicinal surfaces of sapphire. Appl Phys Lett 86:211916
Nagai H (1974) Structure of vapor-deposited Ga x In1−x as crystals. J Appl Phys 45:3789
Liu HF, Dolmanan SB, Zhang L, Chua SJ, Chi DZ, Heuken M, Tripathy S (2013) Influence of stress on structural properties of AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistor layers grown on 150 mm diameter Si (111) substrate. J Appl Phys 113:023510
Pesek A, Hingerl K, Riesz F, Lischka K (1991) Lattice misfit and relative tilt of lattice planes in semiconductor heterostructures. Semicond Sci Technol 6:705
Liu HF, Tan CC, Dalapati GK, Chi DZ (2012) Magnetron-sputter deposition of high-indium-content n-AlInN thin film on p-Si(001) substrate for photovoltaic applications. J Appl Phys 112:063114
Liu HF, Dolmanan SB, Tripathy S, Dalapati GK, Tan CC, Chi DZ (2013) Effects of A1N thickness on structural and transport properties of In-rich n-AlInN/AlN/p-Si(0 0 1) heterojunctions grown by magnetron sputtering. J Phys D 46:095106
Liu HF, Chua SJ, Hu GX, Gong H, Xiang N (2007) Effects of substrate on the structure and orientation of ZnO thin film grown by rf-magnetron sputtering. J Appl Phys 102:083529
Zhang L, Teng JH, Chua SJ, Fitzgerald EA (2009) Linearly polarized light emission from InGaN light emitting diode with subwavelength metallic nanograting. Appl Phys Lett 95:261110
Kim TH, Baek SH, Jang SY, Yang SM, Chang SH, Song TK, Yoon J-G, Eom CB, Chung J-S, Noh TW (2011) Step bunching-induced vertical lattice mismatch and crystallographic tilt in vicinal BiFeO3(001) films. Appl Phys Lett 98:022904
Huang XR, Bai J, Dudley M, Wagner B, Davis RF, Zhu Y (2005) Step-controlled strain relaxation in the vicinal surface epitaxy of nitrides. Phys Rev Lett 95:086101
Litvinov D, Gerthsen D, Vöhringer R, Hu DZ, Schaadt MD (2012) Transmission electron microscopy investigation of AlN growth on Si(111). J Cryst Growth 338:283
Sakai A, sunakawa H, Usui A (1998) Transmission electron microscopy of defects in GaN films formed by epitaxial lateral overgrowth. Appl Phys Lett 73:481
Barabash RI, Roder C, Ice GE, Einfeldt S, Budai JD, Barabash OM, Figge S, Hommel D (2006) Spatially resolved distribution of dislocations and crystallographic tilts in GaN layers grown on Si(111) substrates by maskless cantilever epitaxy. J Appl Phys 100:053103
Degawa M, Minoda H, Tanishiro Y, Yagi K (1999) Temperature dependence of period of step wandering formed on Si(111) vicinal surfaces by DC heating. J Phys 11:L551
Ramana Mutry MV, Fini P, Stephenson GB, Thompson C, Eastman JA, Munkholm A, Auciello O, Jothilingam R, DenBaars SP, Speck JS (2000) Step bunching on the vicinal GaN(0001) surface. Phys Rev B 62:R10661
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank C. B. Soh, S. Tripathy, and K. Y. Zang for sharing the GaN-on-Si (111) heterostructure samples.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Liu, H.F., Zhang, L., Chua, S.J. et al. Crystallographic tilt in GaN-on-Si (111) heterostructures grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. J Mater Sci 49, 3305–3313 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8025-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10853-014-8025-6