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Secondary‐ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is used to determine impurity concentrations of carbon and oxygen in two scandium‐containing nitride semiconductor multilayer heterostructures: ScxGa1−xN/GaN and ScxAl1−xN/AlN grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). In the ScxGa1−xN/GaN heterostructure grown in metal‐rich conditions on GaN–SiC template substrates with Sc contents up to 28 at%, the oxygen concentration is found to be below 1 × 1019 cm−3, with an increase directly correlated with the scandium content. In the ScxAl1−xN–AlN heterostructure grown in nitrogen‐rich conditions on AlN–Al2O3template substrates with Sc contents up to 26 at%, the oxygen concentration is found to be between 1019and 1021 cm−3, again directly correlated with the Sc content. The increase in oxygen and carbon takes place during the deposition of scandium‐alloyed layers.
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Strong effect of scandium source purity on chemical and electronic properties of epitaxial ScxAl1 − xN/GaN heterostructures
Epitaxial multilayer heterostructures of ScxAl1−xN/GaN with Sc contents x = 0.11–0.45 are found to exhibit significant differences in structural quality, chemical impurity levels, and electronic properties depending on the starting Sc source impurity levels. A higher purity source leads to a 2–3 orders of magnitude reduction in the carbon, oxygen, and fluorine unintentional doping densities in MBE-grown ScxAl1−xN/GaN multilayers. Electrical measurements of ScxAl1−xN/n+GaN single heterostructure barriers show a 5–7 orders of magnitude reduction in the electrical leakage for films grown with a higher purity Sc source at most Sc contents. The measured chemical and electrical properties of epitaxial ScxAl1−xN highlight the importance of the starting Sc source material purity for epitaxial device applications that need these highly piezoelectric and/or ferroelectric transition-metal nitride alloys.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1719875
- PAR ID:
- 10594654
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Institute of Physics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- APL Materials
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 2166-532X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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