Indium droplet formation during molecular beam epitaxy of InGaN

Study on the thermal stability of InN by in-situ laser reflectance system

“…During the epitaxial growth of InN and InGaN alloy, formation of In-droplets is frequently encountered, if the growth condition is not optimal [7,8]. In MBE, high sensitive monitoring system such as reflection high-energy electrondiffraction (RHEED) can discern such process, thus growth condition can be altered in time to avoid negative effects such as passivating growing surface [9].…”

“…9, with the dashed line indicating the boundary between the non-Indroplets formation regime and In-droplets formation regime while annealing from 450 to 550 1C. Apparently, the annealing condition window for InN free of liquid indium is relatively small, compared with GaN, since the equilibrium vapor pressure of nitrogen over the InN is several orders higher than that of GaN [6], and also the desorption rate of indium atoms from the nitride surface is much smaller [8]. The results have confirmed that under the circumstance of high ramping rate and small input NH 3 partial pressure, InN will decompose fast enough to bring forth In-droplets, due to insufficient nitrogen radicals on the surface and large surface coverage of indium adatoms.…”

Surface and in-depth characterization of InGaN compounds synthesized by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

“…Piner et al [3] reported that indium droplets may form, which acts as sink for InN, preventing the low-temperature growth of InGaN layers with high In content. Indium droplet formation is a common problem in InGaN growth [4], especially in the In-rich InGaN layer. It reveals that formation of indium droplet can be seen as a way of indium loss.…”

Enhanced 2D plotting method for scanning probe microscopy imaging

“…These observations may lead to a conclusion that spheres represent metal droplets. Evidences for metal droplets formation during vapour-phase crystallization are abundant in the literature [21][22][23]. The droplets may hasten the advance of elementary steps due to additional contribution of the vapour-liquid-solid (VLS) growth mechanism.…”