1. Growth of high-quality AlN epitaxial film by optimizing the Si substrate surface
- Author
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Liegen Huang, Yuan Li, Xiaochan Li, Guoqiang Li, Haiyan Wang, Zheng Yulin, Zichen Zhang, and Wenliang Wang
- Subjects
Surface (mathematics) ,Morphology (linguistics) ,Materials science ,Fabrication ,General Physics and Astronomy ,02 engineering and technology ,010402 general chemistry ,Epitaxy ,01 natural sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,Quality (physics) ,Hydrofluoric acid ,Si substrate ,Surface roughness ,business.industry ,Surfaces and Interfaces ,General Chemistry ,021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology ,Condensed Matter Physics ,0104 chemical sciences ,Surfaces, Coatings and Films ,Crystallography ,chemistry ,Optoelectronics ,0210 nano-technology ,business - Abstract
High-quality AlN epitaxial films have been grown on Si substrates by optimizing the hydrofluoric acid (HF) solution for cleaning of Si substrates. Effect of the Si substrate surface on the surface morphology and structural property of AlN epitaxial films is investigated in detail. It is revealed that as the concentration of HF solution increases from 0 to 2.0%, the surface morphology and the crystalline quality are initially improved and then get worse, and show an optimized value at 1.5%. The as-grown ∼200 nm-thick AlN epitaxial films on Si substrates grown with HF solution of 1.5% reveal the root-mean-square (RMS) surface roughness of 0.49 nm and the full-width at half-maximum for AlN(0002) X-ray rocking curve of 0.35°, indicating the smooth surface morphology and the high crystalline quality. The corresponding mechanism is proposed to interpret the effect of Si substrate surface on surface morphology and structural property of AlN epitaxial films, and provides an effective approach for the perspective fabrication of AlN-based devices.
- Published
- 2018