• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.02a
• /
• pp.183-184
• /
• 2013

Two main MBE growth techniques have been used: plasma-assisted MBE (PA-MBE), which utilizes a rf plasma to supply active nitrogen, and ammonia MBE, in which nitrogen is supplied by pyrolysis of NH3 on the sample surface during growth. PA-MBE is typically performed under metal-rich growth conditions, which results in the formation of gallium droplets on the sample surface and a narrow range of conditions for optimal growth. In contrast, high-quality GaN films can be grown by ammonia MBE under an excess nitrogen flux, which in principle should result in improved device uniformity due to the elimination of droplets and wider range of stable growth conditions. A drawback of ammonia MBE, on the other hand, is a serious memory effect of NH3 condensed on the cryo-panels and the vicinity of heaters, which ruins the control of critical growth stages, i.e. the native oxide desorption and the surface reconstruction, and the accurate control of V/III ratio, especially in the initial stage of seed layer growth. In this paper, we demonstrate that the reliable and reproducible growth of GaN on Si (110) substrates is successfully achieved by combining two MBE growth technologies using rf plasma and ammonia and setting a proper growth protocol. Samples were grown in a MBE system equipped with both a nitrogen rf plasma source (SVT) and an ammonia source. The ammonia gas purity was ＞99.9999% and further purified by using a getter filter. The custom-made injector designed to focus the ammonia flux onto the substrate was used for the gas delivery, while aluminum and gallium were provided via conventional effusion cells. The growth sequence to minimize the residual ammonia and subsequent memory effects is the following: (1) Native oxides are desorbed at $750^{\circ}C$ (Fig. (a) for [$1^-10$] and [001] azimuth) (2) 40 nm thick AlN is first grown using nitrogen rf plasma source at $900^{\circ}C$ nder the optimized condition to maintain the layer by layer growth of AlN buffer layer and slightly Al-rich condition. (Fig. (b)) (3) After switching to ammonia source, GaN growth is initiated with different V/III ratio and temperature conditions. A streaky RHEED pattern with an appearance of a weak ($2{\times}2$) reconstruction characteristic of Ga-polarity is observed all along the growth of subsequent GaN layer under optimized conditions. (Fig. (c)) The structural properties as well as dislocation densities as a function of growth conditions have been investigated using symmetrical and asymmetrical x-ray rocking curves. The electrical characteristics as a function of buffer and GaN layer growth conditions as well as the growth sequence will be also discussed. Figure: (a) RHEED pattern after oxide desorption (b) after 40 nm thick AlN growth using nitrogen rf plasma source and (c) after 600 nm thick GaN growth using ammonia source for (upper) [110] and (lower) [001] azimuth.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.266-270
• /
• 2014

Aluminum nitride(AlN) films were grown on the C-face and on the Si-face of (0001) silicon carbide(SiC) substrates using plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy(PA-MBE). This study was focused on first-stage growth manipulation prior to the start of AlN growth. Al pre-exposure, N-plasma pre-exposure, and simultaneous exposure(Al and N-plasma) procedures were used in the investigation. In addition, substrate polarity and, first-stage growth manipulation strongly affected the growth and properties of the AlN films. Al pre-exposure on the C-face and on the Si-face of SiC substrates prior to initiation of the AlN growth resulted in the formation of hexagonal hillocks on the surface. However, crack formation was observed on the C-face of SiC substrates without Al pre-exposure. X-ray rocking-curve measurements revealed that the AlN epilayers grown on the Si-face of the SiC showed relatively lower tilt and twist mosaic than did the epilayers grown on the C-face of the SiC. The results from the investigations reported in this paper indicate that the growth conditions on the Si-face of the SiC without Al pre-exposure was highly preferred to obtain the overall high-quality AlN epilayers formed using PA-MBE.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
• /
• 2013.08a
• /
• pp.202.1-202.1
• /
• 2013

ZnO nanostructure was fabricated on a Si substrate using two-step growth. The seed layer was grown on the Si substrate by a sol-gel spin-coating. In the first step, ZnO nanorods were grown by a hydrothermal method at $140^{\circ}C$ for 5 min. In the second step, a ZnO thin film was grown on the ZnO nanorods by spin-coating. After growth, these films were annealed at $800^{\circ}C$ for 10 min. Electrical and optical properties of ZnO nanostructures have modified by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) regrowth. The carrier concentration and resistivity increased by PA-MBE regrowth. In the photoluminescence, the full width at half maximum and intensity were decreased and increased, respectively, by PA-MBE regrowth.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.31 no.5
• /
• pp.237-243
• /
• 2018

In-rich InGaN epilayers were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (RF-MBE). InGaN epilayers grown at various growth condition were observed by SEM, XRD, and RHEED. When plasma power of nitrogen increased from 290 to 350 W, surface morphology and crystal quality became worse according to more active nitrogen on the surface of InGaN at N-rich growth condition. As In composition was reduced from 89 to 71% by changing the incoming flux of In and Ga, surface morphology and crystal quality became worse. In addition, weak peaks of cubic InGaN phase was observed from InGaN layer with 71% In composition by XRD ${\Phi}$ scan measurement. When growth temperature decreased from 500 to $400^{\circ}C$, RHEED diffraction pattern was changed to be from streaky to spotty which means atomically rough surface, and spotty pattern showed cubic symmetry of InGaN clearly. XRD ${\Phi}$ scan measurement gave clear evidence that more cubic InGaN phase was formed at low growth temperature. All these results indicates that extremely low surface mobility of Ga adatom caused inferior crystal quality and cubic InGaN phase.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
• /
• 2009.11a
• /
• pp.115-115
• /
• 2009

Epitaxial ZnO film was grown on Si(111) substrate with oxidazed CrN buffer by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). The growth and structural properties are investigated. The single crystalline growth was revealed by in-situ RHEED analysis. Crystalline quality of ZnO film grown on oxidized CrN buffer was investigated by the X-ray rocking curves. The FWHMs of (0002) XRCs was $1.379^{\circ}$. This value was smaller than the ZnO film grown directly on (111) Si substrate.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
• /
• v.19 no.10
• /
• pp.923-929
• /
• 2006

Single crystalline ZnO films were successfully grown on R-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Epitaxial relationship between the ZnO film and the R-plane sapphire was determined to be $[-1101]Al_2O_3{\parallel}[0001]ZnO,\;[11-20]Al_2O_2{\parallel}[-1100]ZnO$ based on the in-situ reflection high-energy electron diffraction analysis and confirmed again by high-resolution X-ray diffraction measurements. Grown (11-20) ZnO films surface showed mound-like morphology along the <0001>ZnO direction and the RMS roughness was about 4 nm for $2{\mu}m{\times}2{\mu}m$ area.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Heat Treatment
• /
• v.29 no.3
• /
• pp.124-131
• /
• 2016

GaN and InN epilayers with nucleation layer (LT-buffer) were grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by radio-frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (RF-MBE). As-grown and annealed GaN and InN nucleation layers grown at various growth condition were observed by reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED). When temperature of effusion cell for III source was very low, diffraction pattern with cubic symmetry was observed and zincblende nucleation layer was flattened easily by annealing. As cell temperature increased, LT-GaN and LT-InN showed typical diffraction pattern from wurtzite structure, and FWHM of (10-12) plane decreased remarkably which means much improved crystalline quality. Diffraction pattern was changed to be from streaky to spotty when plasma power was raised from 160 to 220 W because higher plasma power makes more nitrogen adatoms on the surface and suppressed surface mobility of III species. Therefore, though wurtzite nucleation layer was a little hard to be flattened compared to zincblende, higher cell temperature led to easier movement of III surface adatoms and resulted in better crystalline quality of GaN and InN epilayers.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.11 no.2
• /
• pp.409-413
• /
• 2010

We fabricated 10 nm-thick cobalt silicide($CoSi_2$) as a buffer layer on a p-type Si(100) substrate to investigate the possibility of GaN epitaxial growth on $CoSi_2/Si(100)$ substrates. We deposited 500 nm-GaN on the cobalt silicide buffer layer at low temperature with a PA-MBE (plasma assisted-molecular beam epitaxy) after the $CoSi_2/Si$ substrates were cleaned by HF solution. An optical microscopy, AFM, TEM, and HR-XRD (high resolution X-ray diffractometer) were employed to determine the GaN epitaxy. For the GaN samples without HF cleaning, they showed no GaN epitaxial growth. For the GaN samples with HF cleaning, they showed $4\;{\mu}m$-thick GaN epitaxial growth due to surface etching of the silicide layers. Through XRD $\omega$-scan of GaN <0002> direction, we confirmed the cyrstallinity of GaN epitaxy is $2.7^{\circ}$ which is comparable with that of sapphire substrate. Our result implied that $CoSi_2/Si(100)$ substrate would be a good buffer and substrate for GaN epitaxial growth.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Surface Engineering Conference
• /
• 2012.05a
• /
• pp.349-350
• /
• 2012

Porous silicon (PS) was prepared by electrochemical anodization. Ultra-thin zinc oxide (ZnO) capping layers were deposited on the PS by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). The effects of the ZnO capping layers on the properties of the as-prepared PS were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and photoluminescence (PL). The as-prepared PS has circular pores over the entire surface. Its structure is similar to a sponge where the quantum confinement effect (QCE) plays a fundamental role. It was found that the dominant red emission of the porous silicon was tuned to white light emission by simple deposition of the ultra-thin ZnO capping layers. Specifically, the intensity of white light emission was observed to be enhanced by increasing the growth time from 1 to 3 min.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.52-54
• /
• 2017

An InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structure is grown on a GaN/sapphire template using a plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). The fluctuation of the quantum well thickness formed from roughly-grown InGaN layer results in a disordered photoluminescence (PL) spectrum. The surface morphologies of the InGaN layers with various In compositions are investigated by reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A blurred InGaN/GaN hetero-interface and the non-uniform QW size is confirmed by high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM). Inhomogeneity of the quantum confinement results in a degradation of the quantum efficiency even though the InGaN layer has a uniform In composition.