Growth of Epitaxial ZnSnxGe1−xN2 Alloys by MBE

Abstract

ZnSnxGe1−xN2 alloys are chemically miscible semiconductor compounds with potential application as earth-abundant alternatives to InxGa1−xN. Preparation of ZnSnxGe1−xN2 thin-films by reactive RF sputter deposition yield low-mobility, nanocrystalline films. In contrast, the growth of ZnSnxGe1−xN2 films by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) on c-plane sapphire and GaN templates is described herein. Epitaxial films exhibited 3D growth on sapphire and 2D single-crystal quality on GaN, exhibiting substantial improvements in epitaxy and crystallinity relative to nanocrystalline sputtered films. Films on sapphire were n-type with electronic mobilities as high as 18 cm2 V−1 s−1, an order of magnitude greater than the 2 cm2 V−1 s−1 average mobility observed in this work for sputtered films. Mobility differences potentially arise from strain or surface effects originating from growth techniques, or from differences in film thicknesses. In general, MBE growth has provided desired improvements in electronic mobility, epitaxy, and crystal quality that provide encouragement for the continued study of ZnSnxGe1−xN2 alloys.

Extended X-ray absorption fine structure study of the Er bonding in AlNO:Erx films with x ≤ 3.6%

“…17 These results also imply that XRD detexturation results 5 obtained on the same thin films need re-examination: the exploitation of relative intensities of the peaks to conclude about the relative distribution of Er in insertion sites of wurtzite has to be reconsidered. It then appears that, as already encountered in other thin films adopting the hexagonal ZnO structure such as ZnSnN 2 30 or ZnGeN 2 31 , the simple hexagonal unit cell is not sufficient. Even the ortho-hexagonal distortion often used 32 in the case of the ternary zinc-tin nitride is not satisfactory in most of the cases.…”

Heteroepitaxial Integration of ZnGeN2 on GaN Buffers Using Molecular Beam Epitaxy

“…In thin-film form, ZnGeN 2 has been previously deposited on several substrates by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), ,− hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE), and sputtering. , ZnSn x Ge 1– x N 2 alloys have also been grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) with an Sn content as low as x = 0.1 . MBE has previously been used to produce GaN and InGaN devices of the highest quality, , and demonstrating high-quality ZnGeN 2 by MBE will enable research into a new set of hybrid III-N/II-IV-N 2 devices.…”

Band Gap-Tunable (Mg, Zn)SnN2 Earth-Abundant Alloys with a Wurtzite Structure

“…ZnSnN 2 and ZnGeN 2 and their alloys (ZnGe x Sn 1– x N 2 ) have been extensively studied, and several examples of epitaxial growth on various substrates using various growth techniques have been reported: molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), ,,,, reactive sputtering (RSP), ,, hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE), and metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) Table lists epitaxially grown II–IV–N 2 and Mg-containing derivative films produced in this study and from the literature.…”

“…In the past decade, researchers have begun to investigate wurtzite-type II–IV–N 2 nitrides, including ZnSnN 2 , − Zn­(Ge,Sn)­N 2 , − and MgSnN 2 ,− as semiconductors for photovoltaics and light emitters. The cations in the sputtered ZnSnN 2 and MgSnN 2 films almost randomly occupy the cation sublattice in the wurtzite structure (disordered wurtzite structure), , as shown in Figure a (the crystal structure was visualized using the software VESTA).…”

“…II–(IV, IV′)–N 2 alloys have been studied experimentally and theoretically, − , whereas, to the best of our knowledge, another combination of (II, II′)–IV–N 2 -based alloys has not yet been investigated. We focused on an MgSnN 2 –ZnSnN 2 system (Mg x Zn 1– x SnN 2 ) because of the following reasons.…”