Growth kinetics of O-polar BexMgyZn1-x-yO alloy: Role of Zn to Be and Mg flux ratio as a guide to growth at high temperature

Abstract

We studied the effect of the substrate temperature, in the range from 450 degrees C to 500 degrees C, on the required Zn to (Be + Mg) flux ratio for plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy growth of O-polar BexMgyZn1-x-yO on (0001)-GaN/sapphire templates. Achievement of single-crystalline BexMgyZn1-x-yO with improved optical and structural qualities required relatively high substrate temperatures, which necessitated the Zn to (Be + Mg) flux ratio to be increased from 3.9 at 450 degrees C to 8.3 at 500 degrees C. This resulted in a reduction of Mg incorporation from 25% to 15% for a fixed Be content of similar to 3%. With increasing Zn to (Be + Mg) ratio, 15K photoluminescence energy for the dominant emission remained unchanged at around 3.75 eV and 3.55 eV for the samples grown at 475 degrees C and 500 degrees C, respectively. These findings readily suggest a kinetic limitation of Mg and Be incorporation into wurtzite BexMgyZn1-x-yO lattice, resulting in the formation of second phase due mainly to the enhanced surface mobility of Mg adatoms and, therefore, an increase in the probability of the formation of Mg-rich clusters. An increase in the in-plane lattice parameter, deduced from the Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction, at the onset of the phase segregation suggests the formation of the wurtzite phase MgO rich alloy(s). Published by AIP Publishing.