Control of in‐plane epitaxial relationship of c ‐plane AlN layers grown on a ‐plane sapphire substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy

Control of the in-plane epitaxial relationship of a c -plane AlN layer grown at 1450 °C by hydride vapor phase epitaxy on an a -plane sapphire substrate is achieved. In addition, two in-plane epitaxial relationships are compared. It was possible to grow a c -plane AlN layer on an a -plane sapphire substrate with selectable in-plane matching: AlN [100]//sapphire [0001] could be obtained by growing an intermediate AlN layer at 1065 °C, whereas AlN [110] // sapphire [0001] could be grown on the intermediate AlN layer at a low temperature of 700 °C. The full-width at half-maximums of X-ray rocking curves for the (0002) and (100) planes were respectively 313.2 and 543.6 arcsec from the AlN layer with the AlN [100]//sapphire [0001] relationship and 428.4 and 788.0 arcsec from the AlN layer with the AlN [110] // sapphire [0001] relationship. (© 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)