Influence of the V/III ratio in the gas phase on thin epitaxial AlN layers grown on (0001) sapphire by high temperature hydride vapor phase epitaxy

• Growth of thin epitaxial AlN layers by high temperature hydride vapor phase epitaxy
• Influence of V/III ratio on growth rate, morphology and crystalline quality
• The effect of surface morphology on strain state and crystal quality is established.

Thin (0001) epitaxial aluminum nitride (AlN) layers were grown on c-plane sapphire using high temperature hydride vapor phase epitaxy. The experimental set-up consists of a vertical cold-wall quartz reactor working at low pressure in which the reactions take place on a susceptor heated by induction. The reactants used are ammonia and aluminum chlorides in situ formed via hydrogen chloride reaction with high purity aluminum pellets. As-grown AlN layers have been characterized by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, photoluminescence and Raman spectroscopies. The influence of the V/III ratio in the gas phase, from 1.5 to 15, on growth rate, surface morphology, roughness and crystalline quality is investigated in order to increase the quality of thin epitaxial AlN layers grown at high temperature. Typical growth rates of around 0.45 μm/h were obtained for such thin epitaxial AlN layers. The growth rate was unaffected by the V/III ratio. An optimum for roughness, crystalline quality and optical properties seems to exist at V/III = 7.5. As a matter of fact, for a V/III ratio of 7.5, best root mean square roughness and crystalline quality — measured on 0002 symmetric reflection — as low as 6.9 nm and 898 arcsec were obtained, respectively.