Hydride vapor phase epitaxy and characterization of high-quality ScN epilayers

The heteroepitaxial growth of ScN films was investigated on various substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). Single crystalline mirror-like ScN(100) and ScN(110) layers were successfully deposited on r- and m-plane sapphire substrates, respectively. Homogeneous stoichiometric films (N/Sc ratio 1.01 ± 0.10) up to 40 μm in thickness were deposited. Their mosaicity drastically improved with increasing the film thickness. The band gap was determined by optical methods to be 2.06 eV. Impurity concentrations including H, C, O, Si, and Cl were investigated through energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry and secondary ion mass spectrometry. As a result, it was found that the presence of impurities was efficiently suppressed in comparison with that of HVPE-grown ScN films reported in the past, which was possible thanks to the home-designed corrosion-free HVPE reactor. Room-temperature Hall measurements indicated that the residual free electron concentrations ranged between 1018–1020 cm−3, which was markedly lower than the reported values. The carrier mobility increased monotonically with the decreasing in carrier concentration, achieving the largest value ever reported, 284 cm2 V−1 s−1 at n = 3.7 × 1018 cm−3.