Indium Nitride Thin Film Growth Using Chemical Beam Epitaxy

We report on the successful growth of high-quality indium nitride (InN) thin films on the GaN(001)/SA(001) substrate, via the technique of chemical beam epitaxy (CBE) using the highly volatile source reagent HN3. A detailed characterization of the as-grown films have also been carried out using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), selected-area electron diffractometry (SAED), X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and rocking curve (XRC). HR-TEM micrographs and SAED patterns show the high crystallinity and nearly epitaxial growth of InN. In addition, using the GaN(001)/SA(001) substrate without any buffer layer, the deposited InN films exhibit nearly single (001) out-plane orientation. The effects of deposition temperature and rate on the surface morphology and out-plane orientation have been observed and discussed.