Surface kinetics in AlN growth: A universal model for the control of surface morphology in III-nitrides

•A kinetic framework for controlling the surface during AlN growth is developed.•The Al-polar surface energy of AlN is experimentally determined using BCF theory.•The transitions between morphologies is controlled by the vapor supersaturation.

AlN epitaxial thin films were grown on both vicinal (0001)-oriented native single crystal AlN substrates and AlN templates grown on vicinal (0001)-oriented sapphire to develop a surface kinetic framework for the control of surface morphology. A Burton, Cabrera, and Frank (BCF) theory-based model is formulated and utilized to understand the dependence of the surface kinetics on the vapor supersaturation, σ, and substrate misorientation angle, α. The surface energy of the Al-polar surface of AlN was experimentally determined using BCF theory to be 149±8 meV/Å2. The critical misorientation angle for the onset of step-bunching was determined to be ~0.25° for a growth rate of 500 nm/h and temperature of 1250 °C. Transitioning from a surface with 2D nuclei to one with bilayer steps required a decrease in σ or an increase in α, whereas the suppression of step-bunching required an increase in σ or a decrease in α.