Indium containing Ill-Nitride layers are predominantly grown by heteroepitaxy on foreign substrates, most often Al_2O_3, SiC and Si. We have investigated the epitaxial growth of In_xGa_(1-x)N (InGaN) alloys on Ge substrates. First we looked at the influence of buffer layers between the InGaN and Ge substrate. When applying a high temperature (850 °C) GaN buffer, the InGaN showed superior crystal quality. Furthermore the influence of growth parameters on the structural quality and composition of InGaN layers has been looked into. For a fixed gallium and nitrogen supply, the indium beam flux was increased incrementally. For both nitrogen- as well as for metal (Ga + In) rich growth conditions, the In incorporation increases for increasing In flux. However, for metal rich growth conditions, segregation of metallic In is observed. An optimum in crystal quality is obtained for a metal:nitrogen flux ratio close to unity. The XRD FWHM of the GaN (0002) reflection increases significantly after InGaN growth. Apparently the presence of indium deteriorates the GaN buffer during InGaN growth. The mechanism of the effect is not known yet.
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