https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2005056
Remote plasma assisted MOCVD growth of GaN on 4H-SiC: growth mode characterization exploiting ellipsometry
1
Institute of Inorganic Methodologies and of Plasmas, IMIP-CNR and INSTM UdR
Bari, via Orabona, 4, 70126 Bari, Italy
2
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Duke University, Durham,
NC 27709, USA
Corresponding author: maria.losurdo@ba.imip.cnr.it
Received:
14
April
2005
Revised:
26
May
2005
Accepted:
8
June
2005
Published online:
14
September
2005
GaN is grown on Si-face 4H-SiC(0001) substrates using remote plasma-assisted metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (RP-MOCVD). The pre-dissociation of nitrogen by the remote plasma is used for lowering the deposition temperature to approximately 700 °C. Remote plasma processing is also used for SiC surface pre-treatments including a low-temperature atomic hydrogen cleaning (by remote H2 plasma) and nitridation (by remote N2 plasma). Furthermore, in situ spectroscopic ellipsometry is used for monitoring in real time all the steps of substrate pre-treatments and the heteroepitaxial growth of GaN on SiC. Our characterization emphasis is on understanding the nucleation mechanism and the GaN growth mode, which depend on the SiC surface preparation.
PACS: 81.15.Gh – Chemical vapor deposition (including plasma-enhanced CVD, MOCVD, etc.) / 81.70.Fy – Nondestructive testing: optical methods / 68.55.Jk – Structure and morphology; thickness; crystalline orientation and texture
© EDP Sciences, 2005