Crystal size and oxygen segregation for polycrystalline GaN

Abstract

The grain size for polycrystallineGaN,grown in low-temperature gallium-rich conditions, is shown to be correlated to the oxygen content of the films. Films with lower oxygen content were observed to have larger crystals with an increased tendency to a single-preferred crystal orientation.Elastic recoil detection analysis with heavy ions (i.e., 200 MeV ¹⁹⁷Au ions) was used to determine the composition of the GaN films grown for the study, including the hydrogen, carbon, gallium, nitrogen, and oxygen content. Atomic force microscopy and x-ray diffraction were used to study the sample morphology. From these measurements, the available surface area of the films was found to be sufficient for a significant proportion of the oxygen present in the films to segregate at the grain boundaries. This interpretation is consistent with earlier theoretical studies of the formation and segregation of the VGa-(ON)₃defect complex at dislocation sites in gallium-rich GaN. For this work, however, the defect complex is believed to segregate at the grain boundary of the polycrystallineGaN.