Distorted wurtzite unit cells: Determination of lattice parameters of non-polar a-plane AlGaN and estimation of solid phase Al content

Unlike c-plane nitrides, ``non-polar" nitrides grown in e.g. the a-plane or m-plane orientation encounter anisotropic in-plane strain due to the anisotropy in the lattice and thermal mismatch with the substrate or buffer layer. Such anisotropic strain results in a distortion of the wurtzite unit cell and creates difficulty in accurate determination of lattice parameters and solid phase group-III content (x_solid) in ternary alloys. In this paper we show that the lattice distortion is orthorhombic, and outline a relatively simple procedure for measurement of lattice parameters of non-polar group III-nitrides epilayers from high resolution x-ray diffraction measurements. We derive an approximate expression for x_solid taking into account the anisotropic strain. We illustrate this using data for a-plane AlGaN, where we measure the lattice parameters and estimate the solid phase Al content, and also show that this method is applicable for m-plane structures as well

Evaluation of Vertical Coherence Length, Twist and Microstrain of GaAs / Si Epilayers Using Modified Williamson-Hall Analysis

Modified Williamson-Hall (WH) analysis is used to determine the reliable values of the microstructures for Zincblende epilayers grown on non-polar substrates. Systematic high resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) experiments are performed for several skew symmetric reflections which enable an accurate measurement of the values of vertical coherence length (VCL) and microstrain of GaAs epilayers grown on Si. Furthermore, a simple method based on the orientation of Burgers vector is proposed for estimating the ratio of tilt and twist. In this method, the twist can be found easily once tilt is known. It is rather quick and the measured values of twist are very similar to those which are otherwise estimated by acquiring numerous HRXRD scans along with tedious fitting procedures. Presence of 60 mixed dislocations is confirmed from the cross sectional high resolution transmission electron microscope images of GaAs / Si samples. Furthermore, the estimated value of VCL is equivalent to the layer thickness measured by the surface profiler. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/3598