Indium nitride epilayer prepared by UHV-plasma-assisted metalorganic molecule beam epitaxy

Indium nitride films grown at various growth temperatures were prepared on GaN buffer layers using self-designed plasma-assisted metal-organic molecular beam epitaxy. The influence of substrate temperature on film crystallinity, surface morphology, optical, and electrical properties was studied using x-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), UV/VIS/NIR spectrophotometer, and Hall measurement. The results show that the InN films grown on the GaN template at 500 oC are of good quality, and the full width at half maximum of InN(0002) ω-scan is around 1000 arc sec. The SEM images revealed that the average growth rate is 1.1 μm/h, which is comparable to the conventional epitaxial techniques. These results indicate that the electronic properties and crystalline quality can be significantly improved by optimizing the growth temperature.