Strong affinity of hydrogen for the GaN(000-1) surface: Implications for molecular beam epitaxy and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The stabilities of clean and hydrogen covered GaN(000-1) surfaces are determined using density functional theory together with a finite temperature thermodynamics approach. Hydrogen has an extremely high affinity for the N-face surface: Even under ultrahigh vacuum conditions as realized in molecular beam epitaxial growth, with a residual hydrogen pressure of 10−12atm, the hydrogen terminated surface is, for very N-rich conditions, more stable than any clean surface. A transition to a surface covered by a Ga adlayer is predicted to occur as the Ga chemical potential increases. In typical metalorganic chemical vapor deposition conditions the (000-1) surface is predicted to be covered by 0.75 monolayers of hydrogen. The slower growth rate on the (000-1) surface in comparison to the (0001) surface is attributed to low adsorption of N on the H-covered (000-1) surface.