Growth and characterization of cubic GaN grown on GaAs (110) substrate by MOVPE

Abstract GaN layers were grown by Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE) on GaAs (110) substrate at temperature varying in the range of 750–900 °C. 50 nm-thick GaN layer grown at low temperature (550 °C) was used as buffer layer. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and room temperature cathodoluminescence (RT-CL) studies were carried out and showed a large dependence of the crystalline and optical properties of GaN layer with the growth temperature. A mixture of cubic and hexagonal GaN phases is evidenced by the 2θ/ω spectra which are dominated by a broad peak associated to c-GaN (220) and h-GaN (11.0) reflections. The cubic GaN phase is maximal for a growth temperature of 850 °C. At this temperature, morphological observations by AFM showed the presence of c-GaN islands and RT-CL spectra showed only c-GaN (3.23 eV) emission whereas both emissions of c-GaN (3.23 eV) and h-GaN (3.39 eV) were observed at 900 °C.