Role of Oxygen Incorporation in High Temperature Annealed AlGaN

• Published in: Physica status solidi. A, Applications and materials science Vol. 220; no. 11
• Main Authors: Zainal, Norzaini, Hagedorn, Sylvia, Netzel, Carsten, Mogilatenko, Anna, Schön, Matthias, Weyers, Markus
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01-06-2023
• Subjects: Absorption; AlGaN; Aluminum gallium nitrides; Annealing; Dislocation density; Ga loss; High temperature; high-temperature annealing; metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy; Oxygen; oxygen incorporation; Sapphire; Strain relaxation; Substrates; Threading dislocations
• ISSN: 1862-6300; 1862-6319
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.202300083

High‐temperature annealing (HTA) is a powerful technique to decrease dislocation density in AlN, which can also be applied on AlGaN. This work investigates the impact of using sapphire and AlN as a material cover during the face‐to‐face HTA process on AlxGa1−xN (0.55 < x < 0.93) properties. Before HTA, the threading dislocation density (TDD) in the AlGaN for all xAl was about 6.0 × 109 cm−2. Meanwhile, after HTA, the sapphire cover led to a further reduction of the TDD at 5.7 × 109 cm−2 for the lowest xAl and 1.4 × 109 cm−2 for the highest xAl in comparison to the AlN cover. In most cases, strain relaxation increased by HTA, especially with the sapphire cover. Furthermore, increased optical absorption in HTA AlGaN can be lessened by the sapphire cover. Such absorption compromises the performance of UV LEDs which usually emit through the substrate. These advantages of sapphire over AlN as the cover in the HTA process are associated with additional oxygen incorporation into the AlGaN, most probably from the surface of the sapphire cover.
With the use of sapphire as a material cover during the face‐to‐face high‐temperature annealing process, the threading dislocation density of AlxGa1−xN (0.55 < x < 0.93) can be reduced, while their strain relaxation increases and UV transparency is maintained. The results are associated with additional oxygen incorporation into the AlGaN, most probably from the surface of the sapphire cover.