MBE Growth of III-V Nitride Films and Quantum-Well Structures Using Multiple RF Plasma Sources

Abstract

ABSTRACTMBE growth of III-V nitrides is being studied at NCSU using MOVPE grown GaN buffer layers on SiC as substrates. Rf plasma sources are being used for the generation of active nitrogen during MBE deposition. Through the use of multiple rf plasma sources, sufficient active nitrogen is generated in order to examine the properties of III-V nitride layers grown at higher substrate temperatures and growth rates. The resulting MBE-grown GaN films exhibit remarkably intense photoluminescence (PL) dominated by a sharp band-edge peak at 3.409 eV having a FWHM of 36 meV at 300K. No deep level emission is observed. AlGaN and InGaN films and quantum well structures have also been prepared using multiple sources. A modulated beam MBE approach is used in conjunction with the multiple rf plasma sources to grow InGaN. RHEED and TEM studies reveal flat 2D InGaN quantum well structures. Depending on the indium content, GaN/InGaN single-quantum-well structures exhibit electroluminescence at 300K peaked in the blue-violet to the green spectral region.