Epitaxial GaN film grown at low temperature by hydrogen-plasma assisted MOCVD

A comparative study of the structural and electrical properties of GaN films grown by plasma-enhanced metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (PE-MOCVD) at 700 degrees C, with and without AlN buffer layer is presented. Hydrogen plasma was used in addition to nitrogen plasma to produce GaN. The introduction of H-plasma is found to influence the properties of the films. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Hall Effect measurements show that the sample with AIN buffer layer possesses a smoother and more homogenous morphological characteristics as well as a lower background electron and higher Hall mobility as compared to the sample without buffer layer. X-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that hydrogenation is capable of producing the epitaxial GaN films at reduced temperatures with the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the x-ray rocking (XRC) of GaN (0002) reflection was found to be 54.8 and 256 arcmin for samples with buffer layer and without buffer layer, respectively.