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Microstructural Characterization of High Indium-Composition InXGa1−XN Epilayers Grown on c-Plane Sapphire Substrates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 August 2013

Myoungho Jeong
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea
Hyo Sung Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Materials Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea
Seok Kyu Han
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Materials Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea
Eun-Jung-Shin
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Green Energy Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea
Soon-Ku Hong*
Affiliation:
Department of Advanced Materials Engineering, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea Graduate School of Green Energy Technology, Chungnam National University, Daejeon 305-764, Republic of Korea
Jeong Yong Lee
Affiliation:
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea
Yun Chang Park
Affiliation:
Measurement & Analysis Division, National NanoFab Center (NNFC), Daejeon 305-806, Republic of Korea
Jun-Mo Yang
Affiliation:
Measurement & Analysis Division, National NanoFab Center (NNFC), Daejeon 305-806, Republic of Korea
Takafumi Yao
Affiliation:
Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: soonku@cnu.ac.kr
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Abstract

The growth of high-quality indium (In)-rich InXGa1−XN alloys is technologically important for applications to attain highly efficient green light-emitting diodes and solar cells. However, phase separation and composition modulation in In-rich InXGa1−XN alloys are inevitable phenomena that degrade the crystal quality of In-rich InXGa1−XN layers. Composition modulations were observed in the In-rich InXGa1−XN layers with various In compositions. The In composition modulation in the InXGa1−XN alloys formed in samples with In compositions exceeding 47%. The misfit strain between the InGaN layer and the GaN buffer retarded the composition modulation, which resulted in the formation of modulated regions 100 nm above the In0.67Ga0.33N/GaN interface. The composition modulations were formed on the specific crystallographic planes of both the {0001} and {0114} planes of InGaN.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2013 

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