Dislocation and Elastic Strain in an InN Film Characterized by Synchrotron Radiation X-Ray Diffraction and Rutherford Backscattering/Channeling

Dislocation information and strain-related tetragonal distortion as well as crystalline qualities of a 2-μm-thick InN film grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are characterized by Rutherford backscattering/channeling (RBS/C) and synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction (SR-XRD).The minimum yield xmin=2.5% deduced from the RBS/C results indicates a fairly good crystalline quality.From the SR-XRD results,we obtain the values of the screw and edge densities to be ρscrew =7.0027 X 10^(9) and ρedge =8.6115 × 10^(9) cm-2,respectively.The tetragonal distortion of the sample is found to be -0.27 % by angular scans,which is close to the -0.28 % derived by SR-XRD.The value of |e(⊥)/e‖| =0.6742 implies that the InN layer is much stiffer along the a axis than that along the c axis,where e‖ is the parallel elastic strain,and e⊥ is the perpendicular elastic strain.Photoluminescence results reveal a main peak of 0.653eV with the linewidth of 60meV,additional shoulder band could be due to impurities and related defects.

Structural Analysis of In xGa1−xN/GaN MQWs by Different Experimental Methods

Structural properties of InxGa_(1−x)N/GaN multi-quantum wells(MQWs)grown on sapphire by metal organic chemical vapor deposition are investigated by synchrotron radiation x-ray diffraction(SRXRD),Rutherford backscattering/channelling(RBS/C)and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy.The sample consists of eight periods of InxGa_(1−x)N/GaN wells of 2.1 nm thickness and 8.5 nm thickness of GaN barrier,and the results are very close,which verifies the accuracy of the three methods.The indium content in InxGa_(1−x)N/GaN MQWs by SRXRD and RBS/C is estimated,and results are in general the same.By RBS/C random spectra,the indium atomic lattice substitution rate is 94.0%,indicating that almost all indium atoms in InxGa_(1−x)N/GaN MQWs are at substitution,that the indium distribution of each layer in InxGa_(1−x)N/GaN MQWs is very homogeneous and that the InxGa_(1−x)N/GaN MQWs have a very good crystalline quality.It is not accurate to estimate indium content in InxGa_(1−x)N/GaN MQWs by photoluminescence(PL)spectra,because the result from the PL experimental method is very different from the results by the SRXRD and RBS/C experimental methods.