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Investigation of line-shaped CO2 laser annealing on InN/AlN/sapphire substrates

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Abstract

In this study, a radio-frequency plasma-assisted chemical beam epitaxy (RF-PACBE) system with low growing temperatures was used to grow high-quality indium nitride (InN) thin films. The prepared InN thin films were annealed through a line-shaped CO2 laser beam irradiation in an atmospheric environment at room temperature. The structural and electrical properties of InN thin films annealed with different CO2 laser annealing parameters were measured and analyzed. The crystalline grains turned into large and granular morphologies after the InN thin films were annealed under various feeding speeds of a motorized X-axis positioning stage. According to the measured XRD patterns and rocking curves, the InN (0 0 2) peak intensities of laser-annealed thin films were higher than those of as-grown InN thin films. All surface roughnesses and sheet resistances of laser-annealed InN thin films were higher and less than those of as-grown InN thin films. At the set feeding speed of 7.5 mm/s, the laser-annealed InN thin film had the largest grain size of 69.4 nm and the lowest sheet resistance of 20.21 ± 0.27 Ω/sq. The experimental results revealed that the proper annealing conditions could decrease grain boundaries and release internal stresses to enhance the electrical properties through adjusting feeding speeds.

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Funding

This research is financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Taiwan under grant nos. MOST 110-2221-E-027-076 and MOST 110-2622-E-027-032.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10608, Taiwan

    Shih-Feng Tseng

  2. Institute of Mechatronic Engineering, National Taipei University of Technology, Taipei, 10608, Taiwan

    Shih-Feng Tseng & Chun-Jen Wang

  3. Taiwan Instrument Research Institute, National Applied Research Laboratories, Hsinchu, 30076, Taiwan

    Wei-Chun Chen

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  1. Shih-Feng Tseng
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  2. Chun-Jen Wang
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Correspondence to Shih-Feng Tseng.

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Tseng, SF., Wang, CJ. & Chen, WC. Investigation of line-shaped CO2 laser annealing on InN/AlN/sapphire substrates. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 120, 5687–5696 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-022-09130-2

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