AVS 49th International Symposium
    Electronic Materials and Devices Monday Sessions
       Session EL+SC+MI-MoM

Invited Paper EL+SC+MI-MoM3
Low-temperature Epitaxial Growth of the Wide Bandgap Semiconductor SiCAlN

Monday, November 4, 2002, 9:00 am, Room C-107

Session: Semiconductors
Presenter: I.S.T. Tsong, Arizona State University
Correspondent: Click to Email

Two compounds, SiC and AlN, normally insoluble in each other below 2000C, are synthesized as a single-phase solid solution thin film by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) at 750C using a unimolecular precursor H3SiCN and Al atoms. The growth of epitaxial SiCAlN films with hexagonal structure takes place on 6H-SiC(0001) and Si(111) substrates. The surface morphology, microstructure, and composition of the films are analyzed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) and high-resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Two structural models for the hexagonal SiCAlN films are constructed based on first-principles total-energy density functional theory calculations, each showing agreement with experimental XTEM observations. The predicted fundamental bandgap is 3.2 eV for the stoichiometric SiCAlN, in good agreement with photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Bandgap engineering is a distinct possibility by varying the composition of the pseudo-binary (SiC)-(AlN) film.