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Assessing properties of mixed crystal structures in thin films

In short: When grown under non-equilibrium conditions, crystals or thin films of technologically important materials, such as carbon, silicon carbide and group-III nitrides, may contain domains with different crystal structures (polymorphs). Here we develop and demonstrate nondestructive structural (X-ray diffraction) and optical (infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry) methods to determine the ratio between different crystal phases and study the free-charge carrier and vibrational properties of mixed-phase films containing hexagonal and cubic domains taking InN as an example. This comprehensive approach allows us to establish the elusive properties of cubic InN.

Calculated Müller matrix data azimuth maps for elements M12 (a)–(d), M13 (e)–(h), and M43 (i)–(l) over one full sample rotation for mixed-phase InN films on r-plane sapphire for wave numbers near the InN TO frequencies.

Details of the research are described in Physical Review B 90 195306 (2014)
doi: 10.1103/PhysRevB.90.195306

Authors

M.-Y. Xie, M. Schubert, J. Lu, P. O. Å. Persson, V. Stanishev, C. L. Hsiao, L. C. Chen, W. J. Schaff, and V. Darakchieva

Contact

Vanya Darakchieva, professor
Phone: +46 (0)13 28 57 07
E-mail: vanya@ifm.liu.se

Funding

  • Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SFF).
  • Swedish Research Council (VR).
  • Linköping Linnaeus Initiative on Nanoscale Functional Materials (LiLiNFM) supported by VR.
  • Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA).

 


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Last updated: 12/11/14