Suppression of phase segregation during molecular-beam epitaxial growth of GaMnN using nitrogen-hydrogen plasma

Epitaxial growth of GaMnN by electron-cyclotron-resonance plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy using nitrogen-hydrogen plasma was studied by reflection high-energy electron diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy, and x-ray diffraction. The electron diffraction pattern changed from streaky to spotty when hydrogen was added to the nitrogen plasma, indicating that the effective group V/III ratio was increased. Films grown with nitrogen plasma are phase segregated into GaN and manganese nitrides. In contrast, when nitrogen-hydrogen plasma was used, the films are single phase Ga1-xMnxN, and x can be as high as 0.06. These results indicate that phase segregation can be suppressed by adding hydrogen to the nitrogen plasma during growth. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.