Meaglow Paper on Carbon Reduction in GaN Released

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Meaglow Ltd. staff, together with collaborators from Australia, Bulgaria and Canada,  have published further work on the low temperature deposition of gallium nitride films. Gallium nitride is an important component of light emitting diodes but is typically deposited at high temperatures near 1050 degrees Celsius. For this publication the deposition temperature is closer to 650 degrees Celsius, which may have some cost advantage, however contamination concerns become greater at lower growth temperatures. The current work has been published in the journal Coatings with the title Downstream Electric Field Effects during Film Deposition with a Radio Frequency Plasma and Observations of Carbon Reduction. A Meaglow built hollow cathode plasma source was used to supply active nitrogen species. Past results have shown low oxygen contamination with this plasma source, as reviewed in another recent publication. However, the main interest in this paper is the large reduction in carbon contamination achieved for the gallium nitride. The mechanism for this change is still being investigated, but appears to be related to electromigration effects caused by applied electric fields.