Epitaxial Growth of III-Nitride Hetero- and Nanostructures

A special issue of Nanomaterials (ISSN 2079-4991). This special issue belongs to the section "Nanoelectronics, Nanosensors and Devices".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 August 2025 | Viewed by 3394

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou 215123, China
Interests: Sc-doped aluminum nitride; molecular beam epitaxy; III-nitride heterostructures; photonic cyrstal micro-LED

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Guest Editor
School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China
Interests: wide-bandgap semiconductors; nitride ferroelectrics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Research on the epitaxial growth, design and fabrication of III-nitride wide-bandgap semiconductor hetero- and nanostructures is driving the development of next-generation power/RF electronics and optoelectronic devices. Advances in III-nitride hetero-/nanostructure growth techniques and design protocols promise new devices like photonic crystal nano-/micro-LEDs and lasers, AlGaN/GaN tunneling diodes, high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) with regrown n+-GaN contacts, and multichannel GaN HEMTs. The recent emergence of scandium-doped aluminum nitride (ScxAl1-xN), a relatively new member of the III-nitride family, provides the potential to boost the performance of GaN HEMTs and significantly broadens the application of III-nitrides to ferroelectric devices, RF filters and acoustic sensors.

This Special Issue will address recent progress on the epitaxial growth, material characterization, structural design and engineering, and device applications of III-nitride hetero-/nanostructures, with an emphasis on ScxAl1-xN hetero-/nanostructures. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

  1. Epitaxial growth and characterization of III-nitride materials, particularly ScAlN;
  2. Transport properties of III-nitride heterostructures;
  3. Ferroelectric properties and devices of ScAlN;
  4. Design and fabrication of III-nitride micro-LEDs;
  5. AlN/ScAlN acoustic-wave RF filters, resonators and sensors.

We are pleased to invite you to submit a contribution to this Special Issue of Nanomaterials, and we look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Shizhao Fan
Dr. Ping Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • III-nitride heterostructure
  • two-dimensional electron gas
  • high-electron-mobility transistor
  • scandium-doped aluminum nitride
  • ferroelectric
  • micro-LEDs
  • acoustic-wave devices

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

11 pages, 801 KiB  
Article
Characterization of Trap States in AlGaN/GaN MIS-High-Electron-Mobility Transistors under Semi-on-State Stress
by Ye Liang, Jiachen Duan, Ping Zhang, Kain Lu Low, Jie Zhang and Wen Liu
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(18), 1529; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14181529 - 20 Sep 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1647
Abstract
Devices under semi-on-state stress often suffer from more severe current collapse than when they are in the off-state, which causes an increase in dynamic on-resistance. Therefore, characterization of the trap states is necessary. In this study, temperature-dependent transient recovery current analysis determined a [...] Read more.
Devices under semi-on-state stress often suffer from more severe current collapse than when they are in the off-state, which causes an increase in dynamic on-resistance. Therefore, characterization of the trap states is necessary. In this study, temperature-dependent transient recovery current analysis determined a trap energy level of 0.08 eV under semi-on-state stress, implying that interface traps are responsible for current collapse. Multi-frequency capacitance–voltage (C-V) testing was performed on the MIS diode, calculating that interface trap density is in the range of 1.37×1013 to 6.07×1012cm2eV1 from ECET=0.29 eV to 0.45 eV. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Epitaxial Growth of III-Nitride Hetero- and Nanostructures)
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13 pages, 5553 KiB  
Article
High-Quality Single Crystalline Sc0.37Al0.63N Thin Films Enabled by Precise Tuning of III/N Atomic Flux Ratio during Molecular Beam Epitaxy
by Yuhao Yin, Rong Liu, Haiyang Zhao, Shizhao Fan, Jianming Zhang, Shun Li, Qian Sun and Hui Yang
Nanomaterials 2024, 14(17), 1459; https://doi.org/10.3390/nano14171459 - 8 Sep 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1414
Abstract
We attained wurtzite ScxAl1−xN (0.16 ≤ x ≤ 0.37) thin films by varying the Sc and Al fluxes at a fixed active nitrogen flux during plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Atomic fluxes of Sc and Al sources via measured [...] Read more.
We attained wurtzite ScxAl1−xN (0.16 ≤ x ≤ 0.37) thin films by varying the Sc and Al fluxes at a fixed active nitrogen flux during plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Atomic fluxes of Sc and Al sources via measured Sc percentage in as-grown ScxAl1−xN thin films were derived as the feedback for precise determination of the ScxAl1−xN growth diagram. We identified an optimal III/N atomic flux ratio of 0.78 for smooth Sc0.18Al0.82N thin films. Further increasing the III/N ratio led to phase separation under N-rich conditions, validated by the observation of high-Sc-content hillocks with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy mapping. At the fixed III/N ratio of 0.78, we found that phase separation with high-Al-content hillocks occurs for x > 0.37, which is substantially lower than the thermodynamically dictated threshold Sc content of ~0.55 in wurtzite ScxAl1−xN. We postulate that these wurtzite-phase purity degradation scenarios are correlated with adatom diffusion and the competitive incorporation process of Sc and Al. Therefore, the ScxAl1−xN growth window is severely restricted by the adatom kinetics. We obtained single crystalline Sc0.37Al0.63N thin films with X-ray diffraction (002)/(102) ω rocking curve full-width at half-maximums of 2156 arcsec and 209 arcsec and surface roughness of 1.70 nm. Piezoelectric force microscopy probing of the Sc0.37Al0.63N epilayer validates unambiguous polarization flipping by 180°. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Epitaxial Growth of III-Nitride Hetero- and Nanostructures)
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