Theoretical study on critical thicknesses of InGaN grown on (0001) GaN

Zhao, Wei; Wang, Lai; Wang, Jiaxing; Hao, Zhibiao; Luo, Yi

doi:10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2011.05.002

Cited by 53 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 28 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…This casts doubt on calculations showing that, up to the indium composition of 0.27, the critical thickness for 3D growth is smaller than that for dislocation generation through the Matthews-Blakeslee mechanism. 52 In our case, we observed partial relaxation even of the SQL through introduction of misfit dislocations, and our plan view observations (Fig. 5) indicate the operation of pyramidal slip planes.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Defects, strain relaxation, and compositional grading in high indium content InGaN epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Bazioti

Papadomanolaki

Kehagias

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Physics

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Articles you may be interested inStructural anisotropic properties of a-plane GaN epilayers grown on r-plane sapphire by molecular beam epitaxy J. Appl. Phys. 115, 213506 (2014) We investigate the structural properties of a series of high alloy content InGaN epilayers grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy, employing the deposition temperature as variable under invariant element fluxes. Using transmission electron microscopy methods, distinct strain relaxation modes were observed, depending on the indium content attained through temperature adjustment. At lower indium contents, strain relaxation by V-pit formation dominated, with concurrent formation of an indium-rich interfacial zone. With increasing indium content, this mechanism was gradually substituted by the introduction of a self-formed strained interfacial InGaN layer of lower indium content, as well as multiple intrinsic basal stacking faults and threading dislocations in the rest of the film. We show that this interfacial layer is not chemically abrupt and that major plastic strain relaxation through defect introduction commences upon reaching a critical indium concentration as a result of compositional pulling. Upon further increase of the indium content, this relaxation mode was again gradually succeeded by the increase in the density of misfit dislocations at the InGaN/GaN interface, leading eventually to the suppression of the strained InGaN layer and basal stacking faults. V C 2015 AIP Publishing LLC. [http://dx

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 67%

Defects, strain relaxation, and compositional grading in high indium content InGaN epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Bazioti

Papadomanolaki

Kehagias

et al. 2015

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…These results yield better material characteristics for DH200. Most of the studies have pointed out the contribution of the strain relaxation from critical thickness of InGaN growth [28,31,32]. One of possible ways about the strain relaxation may come from higher temperature (900°C) GaN capping layer growth.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Indium droplet formation in InGaN thin films with single and double heterojunctions prepared by MOCVD

et al. 2014

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Indium gallium nitride (InGaN) samples with single heterojunction (SH) and double heterojunction (DH) were prepared using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. SH has a layer of InGaN thin film (thicknesses, 25, 50, 100, and 200 nm) grown on an uGaN film (thickness, 2 μm). The DH samples are distinguished by DH uGaN film (thickness, 120 nm) grown on the InGaN layer. Reciprocal space mapping measurements reveal that the DH samples are fully strained with different thicknesses, whereas the strain in the SH samples are significantly relaxed with the increasing thickness of the InGaN film. Scanning electron microscopy results show that the surface roughness of the sample increases when the sample is relaxed. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy images of the structure of indium droplets in the DH sample indicate that the thickness of the InGaN layer decreases with the density of indium droplets. The formation of these droplets is attributed to the insufficient kinetic energy of indium atom to react with the elements of group V, resulting to aggregation. The gallium atoms in the GaN thin film will not be uniformly replaced by indium atoms; the InGaN thin film has an uneven distribution of indium atoms and the quality of the epitaxial layer is degraded.

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“…However, the InGaN-sublayer thickness should be more than 10 nm in order to have the maximum efficiency of about 27%. However, the critical thickness of InGaN at 25% of indium provided by some models is less than 10 nm [11,21]. At 30% of indium composition, PCE decreases.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 93%

Modeling of InGaN/Si tandem cells: comparison between 2-contacts/4-contacts

et al. 2017

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Due to its electrical and optical interesting properties, InGaN alloy is being intensively studied to be combined with silicon in order to achieve low-cost high-efficiency solar cell. However, a relatively thick monophasic layer of InGaN is difficult to grow due to the relaxation issue in material. This issue can be avoided by semibulk structure. In this work, we present an InGaN/Si double-junction solar cell modeled using Silvaco-ATLAS TCAD software. We have taken into account polarization effect in III-N materials. We have shown that 50% of indium is needed to ensure the current matching between the top cell and the bottom cell in 2-terminal configuration. Such high indium composition is technologically challenging to grow. Thus, we have modeled a 4-terminals solar cell with relatively low indium composition (In = 25%) where current matching is not needed. With technologically feasible structural parameters, we have shown that an efficiency near to 30% can be achieved with InGaN/Si 4-contact tandem cell.

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Theoretical study on critical thicknesses of InGaN grown on (0001) GaN

Cited by 53 publications

References 28 publications

Defects, strain relaxation, and compositional grading in high indium content InGaN epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Defects, strain relaxation, and compositional grading in high indium content InGaN epilayers grown by molecular beam epitaxy

Indium droplet formation in InGaN thin films with single and double heterojunctions prepared by MOCVD

Modeling of InGaN/Si tandem cells: comparison between 2-contacts/4-contacts

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