Impact of AlN seeding layer growth rate in MOVPE growth of semi-polar gallium nitride structures on high index silicon

We present metal organic vapor phase epitaxy growth of semi-polar GaN structures on high index silicon surfaces. The crystallographic structure of GaN grown on Si(112), (115), and (117) substrates is investigated by X-ray analysis and scanning electron microscopy. X-ray diffraction was performed in Bragg Brentano geometry as well as pole figure measurements. The results demonstrate that the orientation of GaN crystallites on Si is significantly dependent on thickness of the AlN seeding layer and TMAl-flow rate. We observe that the crystallographic structures of GaN by applying thin AlN seeding layers grown with high TMAl-flow rate depend on Si surface direction while they are independent for thicker layers. By applying such seeding layer we obtain single crystalline semi-polar GaN on Si(112), while GaN structures grown with the same growth parameters on Si(117) show four components of GaN(0002). (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim