From Fully Strained to Relaxed: Epitaxial Ferroelectric Al1-xScxN for III-N Technology

The recent emergence of wurtzite-type nitride ferroelectrics such as Al1-xScxN has paved the way for the introduction of all-epitaxial, all-wurtzite-type ferroelectric III-N semiconductor heterostructures. This paper presents the first in-depth structural and electrical characterization of such an epitaxial heterostructure by investigating sputter deposited Al1-xScxN solid solutions with x between 0.19 and 0.28 grown over doped n-GaN. The results of detailed structural investigations on the strain state and the initial unit-cell polarity with the peculiarities observed in the ferroelectric response are correlated. Among these, a Sc-content dependent splitting of the ferroelectric displacement current into separate peaks, which can be correlated with the presence of multiple strain states in the Al1-xScxN films is discussed. Unlike in previously reported studies on ferroelectric Al1-xScxN, all films thicker than 30 nm grown on the metal (M)-polar GaN template feature an initial multidomain state. The results support that regions with opposed polarities in as-grown films do not result as a direct consequence of the in-plane strain distribution, but are rather mediated by the competition between M-polar epitaxial growth on an M-polar template and a deposition process that favors nitrogen (N)-polar growth.