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Self-catalytic growth and characterization of AlGaN nanostructures with high Al composition

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Abstract

AlGaN ternary alloy nanostructures have emerged as an important building block for optoelectronic devices and exhibit broad application prospects. However, the fabrication of AlGaN nanostructures with high quality, especially high Al composition, by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is limited by their phase separation. Here, AlGaN ternary alloy nanostructures with Al/Ga atomic ratio more than 90% are synthesized by using CVD method. The AlGaN nanocones and nanorods are obtained by adjusting the Ar/NH3 flow ratio at the same temperature. Furthermore, it is found that the increase of Ar flux is more favorable to the transport of Ga source, which leads to the raise of Ga content in AlGaN nanostructures. On the other hand, the decrease of NH3 flow is conducive to the formation of nanorods. Moreover, the pre-deposited Al powder on Si substrate provides Al-rich growth conditions and nucleation sites for AlGaN nanostructures, which becomes the key to the formation of AlGaN nanostructures with high Al composition. Based on the evolution of morphology, the growth process of AlGaN nanostructures is investigated by a self-catalytic vapor–solid mechanism.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. 2019197), Open Project of State Key Laboratory of Superhard Materials, Jilin University (Grant No. 202004).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang, 110159, China

    Zitong Liu

  2. School of Science, Shenyang Ligong University, Shenyang, 110159, China

    Longhai Shen & Jianjin Chen

  3. Shenyang National Laboratory for Materials Science, Institute of Metal Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.72 Wenhua Road, Shenyang, 110016, China

    Zitong Liu & Xinglai Zhang

Authors
  1. Zitong Liu
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  2. Longhai Shen
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  3. Jianjin Chen
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  4. Xinglai Zhang
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Contributions

ZL: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, data curation, writing—original draft. LS: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, writing—review & editing. JC: Methodology, investigation. XZ: Conceptualization, investigation, writing—review & editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Longhai Shen or Xinglai Zhang.

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Liu, Z., Shen, L., Chen, J. et al. Self-catalytic growth and characterization of AlGaN nanostructures with high Al composition. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 33, 11906–11914 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08152-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-022-08152-6

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