Institute of Fundamental Technological Research

Epitaxy of semiconductors is a process of tremendous importance in applied science and in the optoelectronics industry. The control of defects introduced during epitaxial growth is a key point in manufacturing devices of high efficiency and durability. In this work, it is demonstrated how useful hybrid reflections are for the study of epitaxial structures with anisotropic strain gradients due to patterned substrates. High accuracy in detecting and distinguishing elastic and plastic relaxations is one of the greatest advantages of measuring this type of reflection, as well as the fact that the method can be exploited in a symmetric reflection geometry on a commercial high-resolution diffractometer.

optoelectronics, Group III-nitride semiconductors, epitaxial growth, X-ray multiple diffraction, interface defects

We present transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and x-ray quantitative studies of the indium distribution in InxGa1−xN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with x = 0.1 and 0.18. The quantum wells were grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapour deposition (LP-MOCVD) on a bulk, dislocation-free, mono-crystalline GaN substrate. By using the quantitative TEM methodology the absolute indium concentration was determined from the 0002 lattice fringe images by the strain measurement coupled with finite element (FE) simulations of surface relaxation of the TEM sample. In the x-ray diffraction (XRD) investigation, a new simulation program was applied to monitor the indium content and lateral composition gradients. We found a very high quality of the multiple quantum wells with lateral indium fluctuations no higher than ΔxL = 0.025. The individual wells have very similar indium concentration and widths over the whole multiple quantum well (MQW) stack. We also show that the formation of 'false clusters' is not a limiting factor in indium distribution measurements. We interpreted the 'false clusters' as small In-rich islands formed on a sample surface during electron-beam exposure.

It is well known that classical Stoney's formula for radius of thin film bowing fails when thin film is dislocated. Thereby, a method of determination lattice parameters for each of heterostructure epilayers is needed when inelastic relaxation takes place. In this article, we have developed a method of determination lattice parameters of a heterostructure from radius curvature measurement data. Description of deformation when dislocations are nucleated is carefully analyzed. It is shown that in order to take into account nucleated dislocations in thin film an additional term responsible for increased volume of layers should be included in the analysis. The proposed method is based on the finite deformation elasticity and uses the finite element method and bowing radius measurement by the laser beam reflection method. As an example the nitride alloy heterostructure with GaN as a substrate is analyzed. The verification is performed using X-ray measurement of lattice parameters. A very good correspondence between numerically determined lattice parameters and XRD measurements data are observed.

III-V semiconductors, piezoelectricity, high resolution transmission electron microscopy, band edge structure