@proceedings {11942, title = {Impact of Growth Temperature, Pressure and Strain on the Morphology of GaN Films}, journal = {Materials Research Society Symposium N {\textendash} III-V Nitrides}, volume = {449}, year = {1996}, pages = {227}, abstract = {

GaN films grown on sapphire at different temperatures are investigated. A Volmer-Weber growth mode is observed at temperatures below 1000K that leads to thin films composed of oriented grains with finite size. Their size is temperature dependent and can actively be influenced by strain. Largest grains are observed in compressed films. It is argued that diffusing Ga ad-atoms dominate the observed effects with an activation energy of 2.3 {\textpm} 0.5 eV. Comparably large grain sizes are observed in films grown on off-axes sapphire substrates and on bulk GaN. This assures that the observed size limitation is a consequence of the 3D growth mode and not dependent on the choice of the substrate. In addition, the grain size and the surface roughness of the films depend on the nitrogen partial pressure in the molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) chamber,most likely due to collisions between the reactive species and the background gas molecules. This effect is utilized to grow improved nucleation layers on sapphire.

}, doi = {10.1557/PROC-449-227}, author = {Hiroaki Fujii and Christian F. Kisielowski and Joachim Kr{\"u}ger and Michael S.H. Leung and Ralf Klockenbrink and Michael D. Rubin and Eicke R. Weber}, editor = {Joachim Kr{\"u}ger} } @article {11964, title = {The Influence of Nitrogen Ion Energy on the Quality of GaN Films Grown with Molecular Beam Epitaxy}, journal = {Journal of Electronic Materials}, volume = {24}, number = {4}, year = {1995}, month = {04/1995}, pages = {249-255}, chapter = {249}, abstract = {

Since the growth of GaN using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) occurs under metastable growth conditions, activated nitrogen is required to drive the forward synthesis reaction. In the process of exciting the nitrogen using a plasma or ion-beam source, species with large kinetic energies are generated. Impingement on the growth surface by these species can result in subsurface damage to the growing film, as well as an enhancement of the reverse decomposition reaction rate. In this study, we investigate the effect of the kinetic energy of the impinging nitrogen ions during growth on the resulting optical and structural properties of GaN films. Strong band-edge photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence are found when a kinetic energy of ~10 eV are used, while luminescence is not detectable when the kinetic energies exceeds 18 eV. Also, we find that the use of conductive SiC substrates results in more homogeneous luminescence than the use of insulating sapphire substrates. This is attributed to sample surface charging in the case of sapphire substrates and subsequent variation in the incident ion flux and kinetic energy across the growth surface.This study clearly shows that the quality of GaN films grown by MBE are presently limited by damage from the impingement of high energy species on the growth surface.

}, keywords = {Activated nitrogen, GaN, molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), nitrogen ion energy}, issn = {0361-5235}, doi = {10.1007/BF02659683}, author = {T.C. Fu and Nathan Newman and Erin C. Jones and James S. Chan and Xiaohong Liu and Michael D. Rubin and Nathan W. Cheung and Eicke R. Weber} }