Growth of Thick AlN Layer by Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Abstract

Thick AlN crystals were grown by conventional hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) on AlN/sapphire templates under low pressure (∼15 Torr) at high temperature (1100°C–1200°C). Colorless, mirror-like AlN films were obtained at the growth rates of up to 20.6 µm/h. The best root mean square (RMS) value of atomic force microscope (AFM) observations for the AlN surface was 2.34 nm. The typical values of full width half maximum (FWHM) of X-ray rocking curves for (0002) and (1012) diffraction of AlN films were 173–314 arcsec and 1574–1905 arcsec, respectively. We also investigated the influences of carrier gas, growth temperature and growth rate on the crystal quality.