Growth of high purity N-polar (In,Ga)N films

Publication date: 15 April 2017
Source:Journal of Crystal Growth, Volume 464
Author(s): Cory Lund, Shuji Nakamura, Steven P. DenBaars, Umesh K. Mishra, Stacia Keller
In this work, secondary ion mass spectroscopy was used to study carbon and oxygen impurity incorporation in N-polar [000–1] GaN films grown by MOCVD. The effects of growth temperature, V/III ratio, and precursor flows were studied within a regime relevant to low temperature (In,Ga)N:Mg growth for device structures containing high indium concentrations. For films grown without magnesium, oxygen levels were between 3 and 8×10¹⁶ cm⁻³ and did not depend strongly on the growth conditions. Mg-doped films yielded higher oxygen concentrations ranging from 8×10¹⁶ to 4×10¹⁷ cm⁻³ depending on the gallium and magnesium precursor flow rates. The carbon concentration in the films varied significantly with different growth conditions, and was most affected by the growth temperature and the V/III ratio. With careful tuning of the growth parameters carbon and oxygen concentrations of 2 and 4×10¹⁶ cm⁻³, respectively, were achievable under a wide range of conditions.