In-situ ellipsometry: Identification of surface terminations during GaN growth

Spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE) is used to determine GaN surface termination during growth with metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) by a correlation to well known results of plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). The results manifest that in MOVPE under typical growth conditions the surface is not terminated by a Ga-bilayer as suggested for MBE. Moreover, it turns out that ellipsometry can be used to characterize the surface reconstruction in wurtzite GaN similar as reflectance anisotropy does for cubic III–V-compounds. The optical spectra for the PAMBE reveal clear differences between growth under Ga-rich and N-rich conditions, which are attributed to the presence of a Ga-bilayer and various N-rich reconstructions on the surface [1]. (© 2003 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)