• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.11
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• pp.634-638
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• 2011

We report growth of epitaxial AlN thin films on c-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. To achieve two-dimensional growth the substrates were nitrided by nitrogen plasma prior to the AlN growth, which resulted in the formation of a two-dimensional single crystalline AlN layer. The formation of the two-dimensional AlN layer by the nitridation process was confirmed by the observation of streaky reflection high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) patterns. The growth of AlN thin films was performed on the nitrided AlN layer by changing the Al beam flux with the fixed nitrogen flux at 860$^{\circ}C$. The growth mode of AlN films was also affected by the beam flux. By increasing the Al beam flux, two-dimensional growth of AlN films was favored, and a very flat surface with a root mean square roughness of 0.196 nm (for the 2 ${\mu}m$ ${\times}$ 2 ${\mu}m$ area) was obtained. Interestingly, additional diffraction lines were observed for the two-dimensionally grown AlN films, which were probably caused by the Al adlayer, which was similar to a report of Ga adlayer in the two-dimensional growth of GaN. Al droplets were observed in the sample grown with a higher Al beam flux after cooling to room temperature, which resulted from the excessive Al flux.

• Current Applied Physics
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• v.18 no.12
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• pp.1558-1563
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• 2018

We demonstrate improved surface pit and phase separation in thick InGaN grown on a GaN/Si (111) substrate, using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy with an indium modulation technique. The formation of surface pit and compositional inhomogeneity in the InGaN epilayer are investigated using atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and temperature-dependent photoluminescence. Indium elemental mapping directly reveals that poor compositional homogeneity occurs near the pits. The indium-modulation epitaxy of InGaN minimizes the surface indium segregation, leading to the reduction in pit density and size. The phase separation in InGaN with a higher pit density is significantly suppressed, suggesting that the pit formation and the phase separation are correlated. We propose an indium migration model for the correlation between surface pit and phase separation in InGaN.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 1996.06a
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• pp.34-35
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• 1996

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.84-90
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• 2005

The influence of plasma parameters on the growth of $In_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}N/GaN$ heterostructures has been investigated using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Since plasma ejects plenty of energetic particles with different energy levels and flux density at various rf power levels, plasma modulated both growth rate and optical properties significantly. For instance, surface roughness and the emission spectrum of photoluminescence were degraded at low and high rf power. According to sharp interfaces between epitaxial films and strong peaks observed from photoluminescence spectra, our experimental setup presented optimal operation range of rf powers at around 400W. The phenomena could be explained by the presence of energetic particles modulating the rate of plasma stimulated desorption and surface diffusion, and energetic particles exceeding critical value resulted in the incorporation of defects at subsurface. The optimal rf power regime increased by 100W for $In_{0.2}Ga_{0.8}N/GaN$ growth in comparison with GaN. The effects of rf power were discussed in conjunction with kinetic processes being stimulated by energetic particles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.203.1-203.1
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• 2013

Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanocrystalline thin films on various growth temperatures for active layer and different buffer layer thickness were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) on Si substrates. The ZnO active layer were grown with various growth temperature from 500 to $800^{\circ}C$ and the ZnO buffer layer were grown for different time from 5 to 40 minutes. To investigate the structural and optical properties of the ZnO thin films, scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffractometer (XRD), and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy were used, respectively. In the SEM images, the ZnO thin films have high densification of grains and good roughness and uniformity at $800^{\circ}C$ for active layer growth temperature and 20 minutes for buffer layer growth time, respectively. The PL spectra of ZnO buffer layers and active layers display sharp near band edge (NBE) emissions in UV range and broad deep level emissions (DLE) in visible range. The intensity of NBE peaks for the ZnO thin films significantly increase with increase in the active layer growth temperature. In addition, the NBE peak at 20 minutes for buffer layer growth time has the largest emission intensity and the intensity of DLE peaks decrease with increase in the growth time.

• Applied Science and Convergence Technology
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.95-99
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• 2018

We discuss the structural and optical characteristics of GaN nanowires (NWs) grown on Si(111) substrates by a plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy. The GaN NWs with high crystal quality were formed by adopting a new growth approach, so called Ga pre-deposition (GaPD) method. In the GaPD, only Ga was supplied without nitrogen flux on a SiN/Si surface, resulting in the formation of Ga droplets. The Ga droplets were used as initial nucleation sites for the growth of GaN NWs. The GaN NWs with the average heights of 60.10 to 214.62 nm obtained by increasing growth time. The hexagonal-shaped top surfaces and facets were observed from the field-emission electron microscope images of GaN NWs, indicating that the NWs have the wurtzite (WZ) crystal structure. Strong peaks of GaN (0002) corresponding to WZ structures were also observed from double crystal x-ray diffraction rocking curves of the NW samples. At room temperature, free-exciton emissions were observed from GaN NWs with narrow linewidth broadenings, indicating to the formation of high-quality NWs.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.579-585
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• 2019

In this study, we investigate the effect of Al/N source ratios and growth rates on the growth and structural properties of AlN films on c-plane sapphires by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Both growth rates and Al/N ratios affect crystal qualities of AlN films. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of ($10{\bar{1}}5$) X-ray rocking curves (XRCs) change from 0.22 to $0.31^{\circ}$ with changing of the Al/N ratios, but the curves of (0002) XRCs change from 0.04 to $0.45^{\circ}$ with changing of the Al/N ratios. This means that structural deformation due to dislocations is slightly affected by the Al/N ratio in the ($10{\bar{1}}5$) XRCs but affected strongly for the (0002) XRCs. From the viewpoint of growth rate, the AlN films with high growth rate (HGR) show better crystal quality than the low growth rate (LGR) films overall, as shown by the FWHM values of the (0002) and ($10{\bar{1}}5$) XRCs. Based on cross-sectional transmission electron microscope observation, the HGR sample with an Al/N ratio of 3.1 shows more edge dislocations than there are screw and mixed dislocations in the LGR sample with Al/N ratio of 3.5.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.409-413
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• 2010

We fabricated 10 nm-thick cobalt silicide($CoSi_2$) as a buffer layer on a p-type Si(100) substrate to investigate the possibility of GaN epitaxial growth on $CoSi_2/Si(100)$ substrates. We deposited 500 nm-GaN on the cobalt silicide buffer layer at low temperature with a PA-MBE (plasma assisted-molecular beam epitaxy) after the $CoSi_2/Si$ substrates were cleaned by HF solution. An optical microscopy, AFM, TEM, and HR-XRD (high resolution X-ray diffractometer) were employed to determine the GaN epitaxy. For the GaN samples without HF cleaning, they showed no GaN epitaxial growth. For the GaN samples with HF cleaning, they showed $4\;{\mu}m$-thick GaN epitaxial growth due to surface etching of the silicide layers. Through XRD $\omega$-scan of GaN <0002> direction, we confirmed the cyrstallinity of GaN epitaxy is $2.7^{\circ}$ which is comparable with that of sapphire substrate. Our result implied that $CoSi_2/Si(100)$ substrate would be a good buffer and substrate for GaN epitaxial growth.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.463-467
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• 2007

Structure and optical properties of ZnO epilayers grown on oxygen- and hydrogen-plasma treated sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (denoted as samples A and B, respectively) have been investigated by various techniques. The crystal quality and structural properties of the surface for the ZnO epilayers were investigated by high-resolution X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscope. For investigating the optical properties of excitonic transition of ZnO, we carried out photoluminescence experiments as a function of temperature. The free exciton, bound exciton emission and their phonon replicas were investigated as a function of temperature from 10 to 300 K, and the intensity of excitonic PL peak emission from the sample A is found to be higher than that of sample B. From the results, we found that sample A has better crystal structure quality and optical properties as compared to sample B. The number of oxygen vacancies may be decreased in sample A, resulting in an enhancement of the crystal quality and a higher intensity of excitonic emission band as compared to sample B.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.21 no.10
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• pp.563-567
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• 2011

We report the structural characterization of $Bi_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films grown on c-plane sapphire substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. By increasing the Bi flux during the growth process, $Bi_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films with various Bi contents (x = 0~13.17 atomic %) were prepared. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements revealed the formation of Bi-oxide phase in (Bi)ZnO after increasing the Bi content. However, it was impossible to determine whether the formed Bi-oxide phase was the monoclinic structure ${\alpha}-Bi_2O_3$ or the tetragonal structure ${\beta}-Bi_2O_3$ by means of XRD ${\theta}-2{\theta}$ measurements, as the observed diffraction peaks of the $2{\theta}$ value at ~28 were very close to reflection of the (012) plane for the monoclinic structure ${\alpha}-Bi_2O_3$ at 28.064 and the reflection of the (201) plane for the tetragonal structure ${\beta}-Bi_2O_3$ at 27.946. By means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) using a diffraction pattern analysis and a high-resolution lattice image, it was finally determined as the monoclinic structure ${\alpha}-Bi_2O_3$ phase. To investigate the distribution of the Bi and Bi-oxide phases in BiZnO films, elemental mapping using energy dispersive spectroscopy equipped with TEM was performed. Considering both the XRD and the elemental mapping results, it was concluded that hexagonal-structure wurtzite $Bi_xZn_{1-x}O$ thin films were grown at a low Bi content (x = ~2.37 atomic %) without the formation of ${\alpha}-Bi_2O_3$. However, the increased Bi content (x = 4.63~13.17 atomic %) resulted in the formation of the ${\alpha}-Bi_2O_3$ phase in the wurtzite (Bi)ZnO matrix.