Band gap bowing and refractive index spectra of polycrystalline AlxIn1−xN films deposited by sputtering

Abstract

The AlGaInN semiconductor system is currently of high interest for applications in blue light emitting devices. AlInN is a prospective material for lattice matched confinement layers. We measure the refractive index as well as the band gap across the entire compositional range of high-quality polycrystalline AlInN samples. Strong band gap bowing is observed.

Progresses in III‐nitride distributed Bragg reflectors and microcavities using AlInN/GaN materials

“…The bandgap of AlInN when lattice-matched to GaN is found to be ≈4.3 eV. This is consistent with the highest experimental values reported in literature, which are spread from 2.8 eV to 4.4 eV [9,10,[15][16][17]. The reflectivity spectrum of Fig.…”

Optical energies of AlInN epilayers

“…The peak of the PL emission tends toward 1.8 eV for InN-rich layers and is near 3 eV at the lattice-match point, both values differing significantly from currently accepted values. Some early papers [16][17][18] report transmission measurements on Al 1−x In x N layers over wider composition ranges. For high InN contents, the data again trend toward the formerly accepted InN band gap near 2 eV, suggesting that these Al 1−x In x N films were of quite low quality.…”

In-rich AlxIn1−xN grown by RF-sputtering on sapphire: from closely-packed columnar to high-surface quality compact layers

“…There are a number of reports of the synthesis of AlInN layers using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOVPE) [12,13] and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) [14,15] as well as by sputtering deposition [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. Sputtering deposition allows low temperature deposition thanks to the high kinetic energy of the ions involved in the growth process.…”

“…It also permits the deposition of polycrystalline films on large area substrates using a low cost process, but at the expense of delivering layers with lower crystal quality than those grown by MOVPE or MBE. The use of sputtering to deposit AlInN on a wide range of substrates, including sapphire, silicon, and quartz, and at different deposition temperatures has been reported by a number of groups [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. A mixture of argon and nitrogen is usually used for the plasma generation.…”