Heteroepitaxy of ZnO on GaN and its implications for fabrication of hybrid optoelectronic devices

• Published in: Applied physics letters 1998-07, Vol.73 (3), p.348-350
• Main Authors: Vispute, R. D., Talyansky, V., Choopun, S., Sharma, R. P., Venkatesan, T., He, M., Tang, X., Halpern, J. B., Spencer, M. G., Li, Y. X., Salamanca-Riba, L. G., Iliadis, A. A., Jones, K. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0003-6951; 1077-3118
• DOI: 10.1063/1.121830

ZnO thin films have been grown heteroepitaxially on epi-GaN/sapphire (0001) substrates. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy, ion channeling, and high resolution transmission electron microscopy studies revealed high-quality epitaxial growth of ZnO on GaN with an atomically sharp interface. The x-ray diffraction and ion channeling measurements indicate near perfect alignment of the ZnO epilayers on GaN as compared to those grown directly on sapphire (0001). Low-temperature cathodoluminescence studies also indicate high optical quality of these films presumably due to the close lattice match and stacking order between ZnO and GaN. Lattice-matched epitaxy and good luminescence properties of ZnO/GaN heterostructures are thus promising for ultraviolet lasers. These heterostructures demonstrate the feasibility of integrating hybrid ZnO/GaN optoelectronic devices.