On Morphology of Aluminum–Gallium Nitride Layers Grown by Halide Vapor Phase Epitaxy: The Role of Total Reactants’ Pressure and Ammonia Flow Rate

This dataset contains the data used for the publication titled "On Morphology of Aluminum–Gallium Nitride Layers Grown by Halide Vapor Phase Epitaxy: The Role of Total Reactants’ Pressure and Ammonia Flow Rate". The following paragraphs contain: list of equipment used for data acquisition, abbreviations used in the article and the publication's abstract.1) List of Equipment:Custom-built Halide Vapor Phase Epitaxy reactorZeiss Ultra Plus scanning electron microscope (SEM) equipped with a Bruker Quantax400 Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) module.Nikon Eclipse LV100ND Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) optical microscope (OM) with Nomarski contrast and both visible (VIS) and ultraviolet (UV) light. 2) Abbreviations:GaN - Gallium nitrideAlN - Aluminum nitrideAlxGa1-xN - Aluminum–gallium nitride ternary alloyHVPE - Halide Vapor Phase EpitaxyPVT - Physical Vapor TransportOM - Optical MicroscopeDIC - Differential Interference ContrastSEM - Scanning Electron MicroscopeUV - UltravioletN2 - nitrogenH2 - hydrogenAl - aluminumGa - galliumAlCl3 - aluminum trichlorideGaCl - gallium chlorideHCl - hydrogen chlorideCl2 - chlorineNH3 - ammoniaμm - micrometersmbar - milibars°C - degrees Celsius3) Abstract:AbstractThe focus of this study was the investigation of how the total pressure of reactants and ammonia flow rate influence the growth morphology of aluminum–gallium nitride layers crystallized by Halide Vapor Phase Epitaxy. It was established how these two critical parameters change the supersaturation levels of gallium and aluminum in the growth zone, and subsequently the morphology of the produced layers. A halide vapor phase epitaxy reactor built in-house was used, allowing for precise control over the growth conditions. Results demonstrate that both total pressure and ammonia flow rate significantly affect the nucleation and crystal growth processes which have an impact on the alloy composition, surface morphology and structural quality of aluminum–gallium nitride layers. Reducing the total pressure and adjusting the ammonia flow rate led to a notable enhancement in the homogeneity and crystallographic quality of the grown layers, along with increased aluminum incorporation. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the growth mechanisms involved in the halide vapor phase epitaxy of aluminum–gallium nitride, and furthermore it suggests a trajectory for the optimization of growth parameters so as to obtain high-quality materials for advanced optoelectronic and electronic applications.