The Effects of Sapphire Surface Treatments and Nitridation on GaN Nucleation Grown using Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy

We have studied the effects of sapphire surface treatments and nitridation on GaN nucleation grown using the hydride vapor phase epitaxy technique. The surface treatments used were airannealing at 1400°C, etching in pure H2SO4 at 250°C, and etching in a 3:1 mixture of H2SO4:H3PO4 solution at 250°C. A nitridation step was carried out using 20% NH3 in N2 gas mixture at 1100°C. GaN nucleation and the early stage s of growth was investigated by short time growth and quench experiments. Atomic force microscopy and double crystal x-ray diffraction were used to examine the sapphire surface morphology, GaN island density, and GaN island structure. A lower density of GaN islands was grown on the air-annealed sapphire compared to the H2SO4-etched and 3:1 H2SO4:H3PO4-etched sapphire. GaN islands grown on the 3:1 H2SO4:H3PO4-etched sapphire had a broad mosaic spread due to preferential growth on surface pits. Sapphire nitridation resulted in a higher GaN island density with a smaller mosaic spread. A high density and uniform nucleation of GaN islands is critical in producing high quality thick GaN films. The H2SO4-etched sapphire and nitridation resulted in a high density of uniform GaN islands.