This Licentiate Thesis covers experimental and theoretical investigations of the bulk plasmon response to different compositions and strain states of group III-nitride materials. Investigated materials were grown using magnetron sputtering epitaxy and metal organic chemical vapour deposition and studied by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry, X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). It is shown that low-loss EELS is a powerful method for a fast compositional determination in AlxIn1-xN system. The bulk plasmon energy of the investigated material system follows a linear relation with respect to lattice parameter and composition in unstrained layers. Furthermore, the effect of strain on the bulk plasmon peak position has been investigated by using low-loss EELS in group III-nitrides. We experimentally determine the AlN bulk plasmon peak shift of 0.156 eV per 1% volume change. The AlN peak shift was corroborated by full potential calculations (Wein2k), which reveal that the bulk plasmon peak position of III-nitrides varies near linearly with unit cell volume variations. Finally, self-assembled ternary Al1-xInxN nanorod arrays with variable In concentration have been realized onto c-plane sapphire substrates by ultra-high-vacuum magnetron sputtering epitaxy with Ti0.21Zr0.79N or VN seed layer assistance. The nanorods exhibit hexagonal cross-sections with preferential growth along the Al1-xInxN c-axis. A coaxial rod structure with higher In concentration in the core was observed by scanning transmission electron microscopy in combination with low-loss EELS.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:liu-67985 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Palisaitis, Justinas |
| Publisher | Linköpings universitet, Tunnfilmsfysik, Linköpings universitet, Tekniska högskolan, Linköping : Linköping University Electronic Press |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Licentiate thesis, comprehensive summary, info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Linköping Studies in Science and Technology. Thesis, 0280-7971 ; 1487 |
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