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Investigation of Epitaxial GaN Films by Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 February 2011

S. Dogan ,
J. Spradlin ,
J. Xie ,
A. A. Pomarico ,
R. Cingolani ,
D. Huang ,
J. Dickinson ,
A. A. Baski ,
H. Morkoç  and
R. Molnar
S. Dogan
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284 Atatürk University, Faculty of Science and Art, Department of Physics, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey
J. Spradlin
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284
J. Xie
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284
A. A. Pomarico
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284 NNL National Nanotechnology Laboratory of INFM, Universitàdi Lecce, Via per Arnesano, I-73100 Lecce, Italy
R. Cingolani
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284 NNL National Nanotechnology Laboratory of INFM, Universitàdi Lecce, Via per Arnesano, I-73100 Lecce, Italy
D. Huang
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284 Physics Department, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, China
J. Dickinson
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284
A. A. Baski
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284
H. Morkoç
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Electrical Engineering and Physics Department, Richmond, Virginia 23284
R. Molnar
Affiliation:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, Massachusetts 02173
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Abstract

The current conduction in GaN is very topical and is the topic of a vast amount of research. By simultaneously mapping the topography and the current distribution, conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) has the potential to establish a correlation between topological features and localized current paths. In this study, this technique was applied to image the conduction properties of as-grown and post-growth chemically etched samples GaN epitaxial layers on a microscopic scale. Our results show that prismatic planes have a significantly higher conductivity than the surrounding areas of the sample surface. A large and stable local current was mainly observed from the walls of the etched pits, under forward and reverse bias of the metallized AFM tip/semiconductor junction.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 764: Symposium C – New Applications for Wide-Bandgap Semiconductors , 2003 , C7.3
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 2003

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