The Effect of the Thickness of the Low Temperature AlN Nucleation Layer on the Material Properties of GaN Grown on a Double-Step AlN Buffer Layer by the MOCVD Method

The influence of low-temperature AlN (LT-AlN) nucleation layer thickness on the material properties of the GaN layer grown on the double-step AlN layer is investigated. When GaN was grown without the LT-AlN nucleation layer, the GaN layer has low sheet resistance of 464 ohm/sq and the surface was decorated with pitted region. On the other hand, when a LT-AlN layer with a thickness of 5 nm was inserted, a GaN layer with sheet resistance higher than 10 ⁶ ohm/sq was achieved. This thin nucleation layer also improved the GaN morphology, suppressed inversion domain formation, and reduced oxygen impurity incorporation. However, the surface morphology and quality of the GaN crystal were severely degraded when the LT-AlN thickness was increased to 10 nm due to the formation of disorientated grains in the LT-AlN layer.