Investigation of different mechanisms of GaN growth induced on AlN and GaN nucleation layers

The evolution of GaN growth on AlN and GaN nucleation layers is compared through morphological and structural analyses, including ion beam analysis. By using AlN nucleation layer grown at high temperature, improved crystalline quality is exhibited by 300 nm thin GaN epilayers. GaN (002) x-ray rocking curve as narrow as 168 arc sec and atomic-step surface morphology characterize such a thin GaN film on AlN. Defects are strongly confined into the first 50 nm of growth, whereas a fast laterally coherent growth is observed when increasing thickness, as an effect of high temperature AlN surface morphology and Ga adatom dynamics over this template.