Single-phase high-quality semipolar (10-13) AlN epilayers on m-plane (10-10) sapphire substrates

Single-phase flat semipolar (10-13) AIN epilayers on m-plane (10-10) sapphire substrates grown by ammonia-free high-temperature metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy are firstly demonstrated. It is found that twins and basal-plane stacking faults are undetectable by X-ray diffraction and cross-sectional characterization. An X-ray rocking curve (XRC) shows the full widths at half maximum (FWHM) of the (10-13) and the (0002) diffraction peaks from a similar to 2.3 mu m thick AIN film as narrow as 322 and 373 arcsec, respectively, indicating a high structural quality. Semipolar AIN epilayers hold great promise for high performance deep-ultraviolet (DUV) optoelectronic device applications. (C) 2020 The Japan Society of Applied Physics