• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.14-14
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• 2006

Homoepitaxial growth of GaN on n-type GaN substrates was carried out by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) method. This enables us to reduce or to eliminate the bowing of the GaN substrate caused by thermal mismatch. As a result, the two opposite crystal surfaces have been found to possess low dislocation density. The surface polarity of the homoepitaxially grown GaN was confirmed by both etching of the surface and conversion beam electron diffraction(CBED). The surface morphology and the photoluminescencemeasurement indicated that the surface properties of N-polar face of the homoepitaxlally grown GaN are quite different from the initial N-polar face of the heteroepitaxially grown GaN substrate Also, both surfaces of the GaN substrate were characterized by room temperature Double crystal X-ray diffraction (DCXRD) and photoluminescence measurement.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.617-621
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• 2013

This study examined the effect of electron-beam (E-beam) irradiation on the electrical properties of n-GaN, AlGaN and AlGN/GaN structures on sapphire substrates. E-beam irradiation resulted in a significant decrease in the gate leakage current of the n-GaN, AlGaN and HEMT structure from $4.0{\times}10^{-4}A$, $6.5{\times}10^{-5}A$, $2.7{\times}10^{-8}A$ to $7.7{\times}10^{-5}A$, $7.7{\times}10^{-6}A$, $4.7{\times}10^{-9}A$, respectively, at a drain voltage of -10V. Furthermore, we also investigated the effect of E-beam irradiation on the AlGaN surface in AlGaN/GaN heterostructure high electron mobility transistors(HEMTs). The results showed that the maximum drain current density of the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with E-beam irradiation was greatly improved, when compared to that of the AlGaN/GaN HEMTs without E-beam irradiation. These results strongly suggest that E-beam irradiation is a promising method to reduce leakage current of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs on sapphire through the neutralization the trap.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.388-396
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• 2023

Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a vital source of clean and sustainable hydrogen energy. Moreover, the large-scale H₂ production is currently necessary, while long-term stability and high PEC activity still remain important issues. In this study, a GaN-based photoelectrode was modified by an additional NH₃ treatment (900℃ for 10 min) and its PEC behavior was monitored. The bare GaN exhibited a highly crystalline wurtzite structure with the (002) plane and the optical bandgap was approximately 3.2 eV. In comparison, the NH₃-treated GaN film exhibited slightly reduced crystallinity and a small improvement in light absorption, resulting from the lattice stress or cracks induced by the excessive N supply. The minor surface nanotexturing created more surface area, providing electroactive reacting sites. From the surface XPS analysis, the formation of an N-Ga-O phase on the surface region of the GaN film was confirmed, which suppressed the charge recombination process and the positive shift of E_FB. Therefore, these effects boosted the PEC activity of the NH₃-treated GaN film, with J values of approximately 0.35 and 0.78 mA·cm^-2 at 0.0 and 1.23 V_RHE, respectively, and an onset potential (V_on) of -0.24 V_RHE. In addition, there was an approximate 50% improvement in the J value within the highly applied potential region with a positive shift of V_on. This result could be explained by the increased nanotexturing on the surface structure, the newly formed defect/trap states correlated to the positive V_on shift, and the formation of a GaO_xN_1-x phase, which partially blocked the charge recombination reaction.

• Journal of the Korean institute of surface engineering
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.83-92
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• 1999

GaN etching was performed using planar inductively coupled $Cl_2$-based plasmas and the effects of main process parameters on the characteristics of the plasmas and their relations to GaN etch rates were studied. Also, the GaN etch mechanism was investigated using a Langmuir probe and optical emission spectroscopy (OES) during the etching, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of the etched surfaces. The GaN etch rates increased with the increase of chlorine radical density and ion energy, and a vertical etch profile haying the etch rate close to 4000 $\AA$/min could be obtained. The addition of 10% Ar to $Cl_2$ gas increased the GaN etch rate and the addition of Ar (more than 20%) and HBr generally reduced the GaN etch rate. The GaN etch rate appeared to be more affected by the chemical reaction between Cl radicals and GaN compared to the physical sputtering itself under the sufficient ion bombardments to break GaN bonds.

• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.196-201
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• 2014

We investigated defects and surface polarity in AlN and GaN by using wet chemical etching. Therefore, the effectiveness and reliability of estimating the single crystals by defect selective etching in NaOH/KOH eutectic alloy have been successfully demonstrated. High-quality AlN and GaN single crystals were etched in molten NaOH/KOH eutectic alloy. The etching characteristics and surface morphologies were carried out by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM). The etch rates of AlN and GaN surface were calculated by etching depth as a function of etching time. As a result, two-types of etch pits with different sizes were revealed on AlN and GaN surface, respectively. Etching produced hexagonal pits on the metal-face (Al, Ga) (0001) plane, while hexagonal hillocks formed on the N-face. On etching rate calibration, it was found that N-face had approximately 109 and 15 times higher etch rate than the metal-face of AlN and GaN, respectively. The size of etch pits increased with an increase of the etching time and they tend to merge together with a neighbouring etch pits. Also, the chemical mechanism of each etching process was discussed. It was found that hydroxide ion ($OH^-$) and the dangling bond of nitrogen play an important role in the selective etching of the metal-face and N-face.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1558-1563
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• 2018

We demonstrate improved surface pit and phase separation in thick InGaN grown on a GaN/Si (111) substrate, using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy with an indium modulation technique. The formation of surface pit and compositional inhomogeneity in the InGaN epilayer are investigated using atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and temperature-dependent photoluminescence. Indium elemental mapping directly reveals that poor compositional homogeneity occurs near the pits. The indium-modulation epitaxy of InGaN minimizes the surface indium segregation, leading to the reduction in pit density and size. The phase separation in InGaN with a higher pit density is significantly suppressed, suggesting that the pit formation and the phase separation are correlated. We propose an indium migration model for the correlation between surface pit and phase separation in InGaN.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.564-569
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• 2002

Heteroepitaxial GaN films were grown on sapphire substrates in order to study the effects of the buffer layer's surface roughness and thermal treatment on the epitaxial layer's quality. For this, GaN buffer layers were grown at $550^{\circ}C$ with various TMGa flow rates and durations of growth, and annealed at $1010^{\circ}C$ for 3 min after the temperature was raised by 23 ~ $92^{\circ}C/min$, and then GaN epitaxial layers were grown at $1000^{\circ}C$. It has been found that the buffer layer's surface roughness and the thermal treatment condition are critical factors on the quality of the epitaxial layer. When a buffer layer was frown with a TMGa flow rate of $24\mu mole/min$ for 30 sec, the surface roughness of the buffer lather was minimum and when the thermal ramping rate was $30.6^{\circ}C/min$ on this layer, the successively grown epitaxial layer's crystalline and optical qualities were optimized with a specular morphology. The minimum full width at half maximum(FWHM) of GaN(0002) x-ray diffraction peak and that of near-band-edge(NBE) peak from a room temperature photoluminescence (PL) were 5 arcmin and 9 nm, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Crystallography
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.49-55
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• 1995

The oriented islands of cubic galium nitride are grown on the (0001) surface of hexagonal GaN epitaxial films by halide vapour phase epitaxial process. The mutual orientation of cubic β-GaN and hexagonal α-GaN phase was observed as : [110](111) β-GaN//[1120](0001) α-GaN. Trigonally faced islands of β-GaN occupy the twined positions in relation to (111) plane in parallel to the film surface. The band gap value for β-GaN determuned from photo and local catchodoluminescent measurments is estimated to be 3.18±0.30eV at room temperature.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.08a
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• pp.132-132
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• 2011

The sheet resistance (Rs) of undoped GaN films on AlN/c-plane sapphire substrate was investigated in which the AlN films were grown by R. F. magetron sputtering method. The Rs was strongly dependent on the AlN layer thickness and semi-insulating behavior was observed. To clarify the effect of crystalline property on Rs, the crystal structure of the GaN films has been studied using x-ray scattering and transmission electron microscopy. A compressive strain was introduced by the presence of AlN nucleation layer (NL) and was gradually relaxed as increasing AlN NL thickness. This relaxation produced more threading dislocations (TD) of edge-type. Moreover, the surface morphology of the GaN film was changed at thicker AlN layer condition, which was originated by the crossover from planar to island grains of AlN. Thus, rough surface might produce more dislocations. The edge and mixed dislocations propagating from the interface between the GaN film and the AlN buffer layer affected the electric resistance of GaN film.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 1997.04a
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• pp.66-69
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• 1997

The p-GaN fins doped with the impurity of Zn were grown on n-GaN films to prevent the defects from the lattice mismatch with sapphire substrates by HVPE. For growth of the high quality n-GaN, the optimized conditions were at first deduced from the results of various HCI gas flow rates and growth temperatures. On the basis of these conditions, p-GaN films were grown and investigated of the characteristics. The FWHM of the double crystal rocking curve of n-GaN was decreased and the hexagonal phases on the surface of GaN films were tend to be vivid with the inoement of HCI gas flow rates. Finally the n-type GaN films with FWHM of 648arcsec were obtained at 10cc/min of HCI gas. As the GaN films were grown with the above conditions, Zn was introduced in the form of vapor as a dopant for p-GaN films. But when Zn vaporized at 77$0^{\circ}C$ was doped to the films, the crystallites of Zn were distributed uniformly on the surface of the GaN film due to the over-doped.