Single crystalline Sc2O3/Y2O3 heterostructures as novel engineered buffer approach for GaN integration on Si (111)

The preparation of GaN virtual substrates on Si wafers via buffer layers is intensively pursued for high power/high frequency electronics as well as optoelectronics applications. Here, GaN is integrated on the Si platform by a novel engineered bilayer oxide buffer, namely, Sc2O3/Y2O3, which gradually reduces the lattice misfit of ∼−17% between GaN and Si. Single crystalline GaN(0001)/Sc2O3(111)/Y2O3(111)/Si(111) heterostructures were prepared by molecular beam epitaxy and characterized ex situ by various techniques. Laboratory-based x-ray diffraction shows that the epitaxial Sc2O3 grows fully relaxed on the Y2O3/Si(111) support, creating a high quality template for subsequent GaN overgrowth. The high structural quality of the Sc2O3 film is demonstrated by the fact that the concentration of extended planar defects in the preferred {111} slip planes is below the detection limit of synchrotron based diffuse x-ray scattering studies. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis reveal that the full relaxation of the −7% lattice misfit between the isomorphic oxides is achieved by a network of misfit dislocations at the Sc2O3/Y2O3 interface. X-ray reflectivity and TEM prove that closed epitaxial GaN layers as thin as 30 nm can be grown on these templates. Finally, the GaN thin film quality is studied using a detailed Williamson–Hall analysis.