Influence of resonant and non-resonant vibrational excitation of ammonia molecules in gallium nitride synthesis

Authors

Hossein Rabiee Golgir, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Yunshen Zhou, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Kamran keramatnejadFollow
Yongfeng Lu, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

Hossein Rabiee Golgir

Kamran Keramatnejad

Date of this Version

2015

Document Type

Article

Citation

Golgir, H. Rabiee, Y. Gao, Y. Zhou, L. Fan, K. Keramatnejad, and Y. Lu. "Influence of resonant and non-resonant vibrational excitation of ammonia molecules in gallium nitride synthesis." In Proceedings of the 33nd International Congress on Applications of Lasers and Electro-Optics (ICALEO). 2015.

Abstract

Attempts on the selective promotion of gallium nitride (GaN) growth were investigated by deploying laserassisted vibrational excitation of reactant molecules, which deposits energy selectively into specific molecules and activate the molecules towards the selected reaction pathways. Laser-assisted metal organic chemical vapor deposition (LMOCVD) of GaN was studied using a wavelength-tunable CO2 laser. The NH-wagging modes (υ2) of ammonia (NH3) precursor molecules are strongly infrared active and perfectly match the emission line of the CO2 laser at 9.219, 10.350, and 10.719 μm. On- and off-resonance excitations of molecules were performed via tuning the incident laser wavelengths at on-resonant wavelength 9.219 μm and off-resonant wavelength of 9.201 μm. The on-resonant vibrational excitation allowed a largest fraction of the absorbed laser energy coupled directly into NH3 molecules whereas energy coupling under off-resonant excitations is less efficient in energy coupling and influencing the GaN growth process. The GaN deposition rate was enhanced by a factor of 2.6 accompanied with an improvement of crystalline quality under the on-resonant excitation. Optical emission spectroscopic (OES) studies confirmed that the on-resonant vibrational excitation effectively promotes the dissociation of NH3 molecules and creates N-containing species favoring the GaN growth. This study indicates that the resonant vibrational excitation is an efficient route coupling energy into the reactant molecules to surmount the chemical reaction barrier and steering the growth process.