High-mobility AlGaN/GaN heterostructures directly grown on diamond (111) substrates using a high-temperature physical-vapor-deposition AlN nucleation layer
Abstract
The direct epitaxial growth of GaN on diamond substrates offers a fundamental solution for thermal management in high-power-density GaN electronic devices. However, the amorphous layer and the strong C-C bonds on the diamond (111) surface have persistently hindered high-quality III-nitride nucleation. In this work, we overcome this fundamental challenge through the development of high-temperature physical-vapor-deposited AlN (HT-PVD-AlN) nucleation technology. Our approach utilizes high temperatures to eliminate amorphous layers while employing high-energy plasma species to modify diamond surface bonds, resulting in an AlN nucleation layer with exceptional in-plane and out-of-plane crystallographic alignment. On top of this high-quality PVD-AlN nucleation layer, low-dislocation density GaN layers and high-mobility AlGaN/GaN heterostructures have been fabricated. The full width at half maximum values of the x-ray diffraction rocking curves for the GaN (0002) and (10 1¯ 2) planes are 651 and 788 arcsec, respectively. The AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on diamond substrates exhibit a record room-temperature electron mobility of 1640 cm2/(V s). This work demonstrates that GaN directly grown on diamond (111) by employing HT-PVD-AlN nucleation layer is promising for next-generation high-performance GaN electronic devices.
Article Details
Journal Info
Applied Physics Letters
American Institute of Physics
Authors (18)
Hongcai Yang
State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Peking University 1 , Beijing 100871,
Xuelin Yang
Han Yang
Kexin Zhang
State Key Laboratory of High Pressure and Superhard Materials, College of Physics
Zhenghao Chen
Junkang Wu
State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Peking University 1 , Beijing 100871,
Xingyu Fu
School of Integrated Circuits, Peking University 1 , Beijing 100871,
Faquan Wu
Xuan Liu
School of Energy and Power Engineering
Yuxia Feng
College of Microelectronics, Beijing University of Technology 2 , Beijing 100124,
Xing Zhang
State Key Laboratory of Elemento-Organic Chemistry, Frontiers Science Center for New Organic Matter, College of Chemistry
Yue Wang
Xiangning Kang
State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Peking University 1 , Beijing 100871,
Guangxu Ju
State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, Nano-optoelectronics Frontier Center of Ministry of Education, School of Physics, Peking University 1 , Beijing 100871,
Fujun Xu
State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University 1 , Beijing 100871,
Ning Tang
Xinqiang Wang
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology
Bo Shen
Department of Chemistry