Effects of growth temperature on GaN nucleation layers

Abstract

The effects of growth temperature on the microscopic structure of GaN nucleation layers were studied in a synchrotron x-ray scattering experiment. As the growth temperature increases from 467 to 655 degrees C, the stacking of GaN changes from random stacking to a mixture of cubic and hexagonal stacking. With increasing the growth temperature, the order in the atomic layer positions in the out-of-plane direction increases and the mosaic distribution becomes narrow. The optimal photoluminescence spectrum was obtained on the GaN epilayer deposited on the nucleation layer grown at 505 degrees C. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)01041-4].