Abstract
Our experimental results using reactive magnetron sputtering, combined with earlier literature, are used to understand the thermodynamic and kinetic processes involved in GaN film growth and the limiting factors involved in the incorporation of nitrogen during the growth process. We show that GaN films fabricated with low pressure growth techniques (<0.1 Torr) such as sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy are formed under metastable conditions with a nonequilibrium kinetically limited reaction. For these methods, the growth process is controlled by a competition between the forward reaction, which depends on the arrival of activated nitrogen species at the growing surface, and the reverse reaction whose rate is limited by the unusually large kinetic barrier of decomposition of GaN. In practice, the thermally activated rate of decomposition sets an upper bound to the growth temperature.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1242-1244 |
| Number of pages | 3 |
| Journal | Applied Physics Letters |
| Volume | 62 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1993 |
| Externally published | Yes |
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ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
Cite this
Thermodynamic and kinetic processes involved in the growth of epitaxial GaN thin films. / Newman, Nathan; Ross, J.; Rubin, M.
In: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 62, No. 11, 1993, p. 1242-1244.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Thermodynamic and kinetic processes involved in the growth of epitaxial GaN thin films
AU - Newman, Nathan
AU - Ross, J.
AU - Rubin, M.
PY - 1993
Y1 - 1993
N2 - Our experimental results using reactive magnetron sputtering, combined with earlier literature, are used to understand the thermodynamic and kinetic processes involved in GaN film growth and the limiting factors involved in the incorporation of nitrogen during the growth process. We show that GaN films fabricated with low pressure growth techniques (<0.1 Torr) such as sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy are formed under metastable conditions with a nonequilibrium kinetically limited reaction. For these methods, the growth process is controlled by a competition between the forward reaction, which depends on the arrival of activated nitrogen species at the growing surface, and the reverse reaction whose rate is limited by the unusually large kinetic barrier of decomposition of GaN. In practice, the thermally activated rate of decomposition sets an upper bound to the growth temperature.
AB - Our experimental results using reactive magnetron sputtering, combined with earlier literature, are used to understand the thermodynamic and kinetic processes involved in GaN film growth and the limiting factors involved in the incorporation of nitrogen during the growth process. We show that GaN films fabricated with low pressure growth techniques (<0.1 Torr) such as sputtering and molecular beam epitaxy are formed under metastable conditions with a nonequilibrium kinetically limited reaction. For these methods, the growth process is controlled by a competition between the forward reaction, which depends on the arrival of activated nitrogen species at the growing surface, and the reverse reaction whose rate is limited by the unusually large kinetic barrier of decomposition of GaN. In practice, the thermally activated rate of decomposition sets an upper bound to the growth temperature.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0001602699&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=0001602699&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1063/1.108746
DO - 10.1063/1.108746
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001602699
VL - 62
SP - 1242
EP - 1244
JO - Applied Physics Letters
JF - Applied Physics Letters
SN - 0003-6951
IS - 11
ER -