X-ray Diffraction Study of InGaN/GaN Superlattice Implanted with Eu3+ Ions

Abstract

AbstractIn this work, europium implanted InGaN/GaN SL with a fixed well/barrier thickness ratio grown by metal-organic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) on GaN/(0001) sapphire substrate were investigated. The as-grown and Eu ion implanted InGaN/GaN SLs were annealed at different temperatures ranging from 600°C to 950°C in nitrogen ambient. The quality of the SL interfaces in undoped and implanted structures has been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) at room temperature. The characteristic satellite peaks of SLs were measured for the (0002) reflection up to the second order in the symmetric Bragg geometry. The XRD simulation spectrum of the as-grown SL agrees well with the experimental results. The simulation results show x=0.06 atomic percent the InGaN well sub-layers, with thicknesses of 2.4 and 3.3 nm for single InGaN well and GaN barrier, respectively. It was observed that annealing of the undoped SL does not significantly affect the interfacial quality of the superstructure, whereas, the Eu ion implanted InGaN/GaN SL undergo partial induced degradation. Annealing the implanted SLs shows a gradual improvement of the multilayer periodicity and a reduction of the induced degradation with increasing the annealing temperature as indicated by the XRD spectra.