The growth, electronic structure and doping of the semiconductor InN has been explored and analysed. InN thin films were grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The significance of the relative fluxes, substrate temperature and buffer layers was explored and related to the electrical and structural properties of the films. An exploration of the effect of active nitrogen species on InN films found that excited molecular nitrogen was preferred for growth over atomic and ionic species. An optimised recipe for InN was developed incorporating all explored parameters. The bandgap of InN was explored using the techniques of optical absorption, photoluminescence and photoconductivity. All three techniques identified a feature near 0.67 eV as the only dominant and reproducible optical feature measurable from InN thin films. No evidence for any optical features above 1 eV was discovered. The effect of the Burstein-Moss effect is discussed and the debate over the relative impact of the effect is related to problems with precisely measuring electron concentrations. Photoluminescence from mixed phase InN films containing significant zincblende content is presented, with tentative evidence presented for a zincblende band gap near 0.61 eV. Native defects within InN were studied by near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Nitrogen related defects were found to be unlikely candidates for the high as-grown n-type conductivity. The most likely candidate remains nitrogen vacancies. Ion implantation was shown to cause substantial damage to the InN lattice, which could not be fully repaired through annealing. The limitation on annealing temperatures may limit the use of implantation as a processing tool for InN. Mg was shown to exhibit great promise as a potential p-type dopant. Photoluminescence from Mg doped films was found to quench at high Mg concentrations, consistent with a depletion region near the surface. The potential dilute magnetic semiconductor In1-xCrxN was explored. All of the In1-xCrxN films were found to be ferromagnetic at room temperature and exhibited saturated magnetic moments of up to 0.7 emu/g. An interesting correlation between background electron concentration and remnant moment is presented and the consequences of theoretical exchange models discussed. The bandgap of chromium nitride was also investigated and found to be an indirect gap of 0.7 eV.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2006. / Typescript (photocopy). "May 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves [173]-186). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The effect of silicon doping on the strain in c-plane InN films grown on c-plane GaN by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy is investigated. Strain is measured by x-ray reciprocal space mapping and Raman spectroscopy. The silicon doping concentration of our sample is about 1018 cm-3 by Hall measurement. Relation between the strain and the silicon concentration is obtained. To understand the increase in tensile stress caused by Si doping is discussed in terms of a crystallite coalescence model.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 100-110). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). "September 2008." Includes bibliographical references (p. [190]-210). Also available via the World Wide Web.

The objective of this dissertation is to understand the structural and optoelectronic properties of group III-nitride materials grown by High-Pressure Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (HP-MOCVD) and Migration Enhanced Plasma Assisted MOCVD by FTIR reflectance spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Atomic Force Microscopy. The influence of the substrates/templates (Sapphire, AlN, Ga-polar GaN, N-polar GaN, n-GaN, and p-GaN) on the free carrier concentration, carrier mobility, short-range crystalline ordering, and surface morphology of the InN layers grown on HP-MOCVD were investigated using those techniques. The lowest carrier concentration of 7.1×1018 cm-3 with mobility of 660 cm2V-1s-1 was found in the InN film on AlN template, by FTIR reflectance spectra analysis. Furthermore, in addition to the bulk layer, an intermediate InN layers with different optoelectronic properties were identified in these samples. The best local crystalline order was observed in the InN/AlN/Sapphire by the Raman E2 high analysis. The smoothest InN surface was observed on the InN film on p-GaN template. The influence of reactor pressures (2.5–18.5 bar) on the long-range crystalline order, in plane structural quality, local crystalline order, free carrier concentration, and carrier mobility of the InN epilayers deposited on GaN/sapphire by HP-MOCVD has also been studied using those methods. Within the studied process parameter space, the best material properties were achieved at a reactor pressure of 12.5 bar and a group-V/III ratio of 2500 with a free carrier concentration of 1.5x1018 cm-3, a mobility in the bulk InN layer of 270 cm2 V-1s-1 and the Raman (E2 high) FWHM of 10.3 cm-1. The crystalline properties, probed by XRD 2θ–ω scans have shown an improvement with the increasing reactor pressure. The effect of an AlN buffer layer on the free carrier concentration, carrier mobility, local crystalline order, and surface morphology of InN layers grown by Migration-Enhanced Plasma Assisted MOCVD were also investigated. Here, the AlN nucleation layer was varied to assess the physical properties of the InN layers. This study was focused on optimization of the AlN nucleation layer (e.g. temporal precursor exposure, nitrogen plasma exposure, and plasma power) and its effect on the InN layer properties.

Neste trabalho, analisamos as propriedades estruturais, morfológicas e óticas de filmes finos de nitreto de índio, depositados em diferentes tipos de substratos (Si , safira-C, safira-A, safira-R, GaN/ safira e vidro) pelo método de deposição as s i s t ida por feixe de elétrons com energia de íons entre 100 e 1180 eV. A temperatura de substrato durante o processo de deposição variou da temperatura ambiente (TA) à 450oC, e ARR( I/A) ,que é a razão do f luxo de íons incidentes no feixe de íons relativa ao f luxo de átomos de In evaporados , de 0,8 até 4,5. O crescimento de InN cristalino foi fortemente influenciado pela orientação cristalográfica do substrato e os filmes sobre safira-C, safira-A e GaN/ safira foram os que apresentaram maior cristalinidade. O melhor valor de energia de íons foi de 100 eV para a formação de InN cristalino e sua cristalinidade aumentou com o aumento da temperatura do substrato. Não observamos influências de ARR( I/A) sobre a cristalinidade de InN e os filmes preparados em TA sobre GaN/ safira apresentaram InN amorfo. / In thi s work, we analyzed the structural , morphological and optical properties of thin indium nitride films grown on some types of subs t rate (Si , c-plane sapphire, a-plane sapphire, r -plane sapphire, GaN/ sapphire and glass ) by the ion beam as s is ted deposition method with ion energy of 100-1180 eV. The substrate temperature during deposition ranged from room temperature (RT) to 450oC and ARR ( I/A) , from 0.8 to 4.5. The growth of crystalline InN was strongly influenced by the crystallographic orientation of substrate and the films on c-plane sapphire, a-plane sapphire and GaN/ sapphire provided more favorable result s . The best value of ion energy was found to be 100 eV for the format ion of crystalline InN and this crystallization increased with increasing the substrate temperature. We found that influence of ARR( I/A) on the crystallization of InN was imperceptible and that the f ilm prepared at RT on the GaN/ sapphire was amorphous of InN.

Unique physical properties such as small effective mass, high electron drift velocities, high electron mobility and small band gap energy make InN a candidate for applications in high-speed microelectronic and optoelectronic devices. The aim of this research is to understand the surface properties, desorption kinetics and thermal stability of InN epilayers that affect the growth processes and determine film quality as well as device performance and life time. We have investigated the structural properties, the surface desorption kinetics, and the thermal stability using Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), high resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS), and temperature programmed desorption (TPD). Investigations on high pressure chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD)-grown InN samples revealed the presence of tilted crystallites, which were attributed to high group V/III flux ratio and lattice mismatch. A study of the thermal stability of HPCVD-grown InN epilayers revealed that the activation energy for nitrogen desorption was 1.6±0.2 eV, independent of the group V/III flux ratio. Initial investigations on the ternary alloy In0.96Ga0.04N showed single-phase, N-polar epilayers using XRD and HREELS, while a thermal desorption study revealed an activation energy for nitrogen desorption of 1.14 ± 0.06 eV. HREELS investigations of atomic layer epitaxy (ALE)-grown InN revealed vibrational modes assigned to N-N vibrations. The atomic hydrogen cleaned InN surface also exhibited modes assigned to surface N-H without showing In-H species, which indicated N-polar InN. Complete desorption of hydrogen from the InN surface was best described by the first-order desorption kinetics with an activation energy of 0.88 ± 0.06 eV and pre-exponential factor of (1.5 ± 0.5) ×105 s-1. Overall, we have used a number of techniques to characterize the structure, surface bonding configuration, thermal stability and hydrogen desorption kinetics of InN and In0.96Ga0.04N epilayers grown by HPCVD and ALE. High group V/III precursors ratio and lattice mismatch have a crucial influence on the film orientation. The effects of hydrogen on the decomposition add to the wide variation in the activation energy of nitrogen desorption. Presence of surface defects lowers the activation energy for hydrogen desorption from the surface.

The development of next generation devices for high speed switching, high efficiency energy conversion, spintronic devices require the development of advanced material systems. While conventional group IV, group II-VI and group III-V based materials systems have served as a base material in many modern device structures, they posses fundamental materials properties that limit their suitability in next generation device structures. The group III-N material system is very promising for the development of advanced device structures. GaN is currently widely used in high efficiency lighting applications. However, the development of this material system has been limited to material systems with limited indium. The growth of high indium concentration materials such as InN and GaxIn1-xN has proven difficulty due to the high thermal decomposition pressure of InN. In response to this difficulty, a high pressure chemical vapor deposition reactor system has been developed for the growth of InN which enables elevated processing temperatures as compared to conventional low-pressure growth techniques. The design criteria and implementation of this unique design is presented here. In addition, the results of in-situ real time optical characterization capabilities of this reactor system are presented as applied to thermal characterization, flow dynamics, gas phase kinetics and surface reactions. Ex-situ InN thin films grown on sapphire substrates and GaN epilayers have been analyzed by x-ray diffraction, transmission spectroscopy and raman spectroscopy. These results indicated single crystal indium nitride films with an optical absorption edge which varies between 0.7 and 1.9 eV as a function of precursor flow stoichiometry.