Decomposition Process of Alane and Gallane Compounds in Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition Studied by Surface Photo-Absorption

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Abstract
We used surface photo-absorption (SPA) to study trimethylamine alane (TMAA) and dimethylamine gallane (DMAG) decomposition processes on a substrate surface in metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The decomposition onset temperatures of these group III hydride sources correspond to the substrate temperature at which the SPA reflectivity starts to increase during the supply of the group III source onto a group V stabilized surface. It was found that TMAA and DMAG start to decompose at about 150°C on an As-stabilized surface, which is much lower than the decomposition onsets of trialkyl Al and Ga compounds. Low temperature photoluminescence spectra exhibit dominant excitionic emissions for GaAs layers grown by DMAG at substrate temperatures above 400°C, indicating that carbon incorporation and the crystal quality deterioration due to incomplete decomposition on surface is much suppressed by using DMAG. A comparison of AlGaAs photoluminescence between layers by TMAA/triethylgallium and triethylaluminum/triethylgallium shows that the band-to-carbon acceptor transition is greatly reduced by using TMAA. TMAA and DMAG were verified to be promising group III sources for low-temperature and high-purity growth with low-carbon incorporation.