New Atomic Nitrogen Source for MBE

The growth rate of GaN films by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) needs to be increased to at least 1 micron per hour in order for the process to be commercially viable. At present, this growth is being severely limited by the source of atomic nitrogen used. The proposed program will design, fabricate and test a prototype source using an innovative new method of generating atomic nitrogen. The method uses a chemical reaction to strip a nitrogen containing gas to produce atomic nitrogen in a neutral beam with an energy of 0.24eV. In addition, the atomic nitrogen flux at the substrate is estimated to be greater than 10(15)/cm(2)ser with less than a 30% molecular N(2) content. This high flux of atomic nitrogen will permit MBE growth at much lower chamber pressures than present technology. In Phase II, the source design will be finalized and layers of GaN and AIN will be grown in collaboration with the Boston University MBE facility.