Oxidation of Gallium Nitride Epilayers in Dry Oxygen
P. Chen, Rong Zhang, X. F. Xu, Pen Chen, Y. G. Zhou, S. Y. Xie, Y. Shi, B. Shen, S. L. Gu, Z. C. Huang, J. Hu, Y. D. Zheng
Nanjing University
This article was presented as part of Symposium W, "Gallium Nitride and Related Alloys" at the 1999 Fall Meeting of the Materials Research Society held in Boston, Massachusetts, November 28-December 3
Abstract
The oxidation of GaN epilayers in dry oxygen has been studied. The 1-µm-thick
GaN epilayers grown on (0001) sapphire substrates by Rapid-Thermal-Processing/Low
Pressure Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition were used in this work. The oxidation
of GaN in dry oxygen was performed at various temperatures for different time. The
oxide was identified as the monoclinic 
-Ga2O3 by a 
-2 scan X-ray diffraction (XRD).
The scanning electron microscope observation shows a rough oxide surface and an
expansion of the volume. XRD data also showed that the oxidation of GaN began to
occur at 800 °C . The GaN diffraction peaks disappeared at 1050 °C for 4 h or at 1100 °C
for 1 h, which indicates that the GaN epilayers has been completely oxidized. From these
results, it was found that the oxidation of GaN in dry oxygen was not layer-by-layer and
limited by the interfacial reaction and diffusion mechanism at different temperatures.
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Cite this article as: MRS Internet J. Nitride Semicond. Res. 5S1, W11.71 (2000).
last updated Wednesday, May 17, 2000 5:01:50 PM.
© 2000 The Materials Research Society