AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Thursday Sessions
       Session EM-ThP

Paper EM-ThP14
Thermal Stability of HPCVD Grown InN Epilayers

Thursday, November 3, 2011, 6:00 pm, Room East Exhibit Hall

Session: Electronic Materials and Processing Poster Session
Presenter: Brian Thoms, Georgia State University
Authors: A.R. Acharya, Georgia State University
S. Gamage, Georgia State University
N. Dietz, Georgia State University
B.D. Thoms, Georgia State University
Correspondent: Click to Email
The thermal stability of InN layers grown on sapphire by high-pressure chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) was studied using isothermal desorption measurements and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES). The desorption of hydrogen-, carbon-, and nitrogen-containing species was analyzed using a differentially-pumped mass spectrometer while the sample temperature was ramped from room temperature to a target value, where it was held constant for ten minutes before cooling back to room temperature. Experiments were performed with increasing target temperatures from 500 °C and 700 °C. No significant evaporation of nitrogen and other species was observed until the samples were annealed to 600 °C. However, during isothermal heating to 650 °C or above, the evaporation of molecular nitrogen commenced around 450 °C and an abrupt increase occurred above 600 °C indicating serious degradation of the film. The stability of InN layers was found to be dependent on V/III ratio, being more stable for the film grown in higher V/III ratio growth conditions. After annealing to 700 °C, the AES spectra showed carbon, oxygen, and traces of indium but no nitrogen indicating the complete desorption of nitrogen from the InN film.