Effect of thermal annealing on r.f. sputtering-deposited nanocrystalline GaN x As1−x thin films

GaNAs thin films were deposited on Corning glass substrates by radio frequency (r.f.) sputtering in molecular nitrogen ambient. The stoichiometry in the GaNAs alloy was controlled by changing the nitrogen incorporation in the film during the growth process, through the variation of the r.f. power in the range 30–80 watts which produced films with N concentrations in the range: x = 0.85–0.90. The structural and optical properties of the GaNAs thin films were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), photoacoustic (PA) and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies. XRD measurements show a broad diffraction band with a peak close to the (002) diffraction line of the GaN hexagonal phase, and a slight shoulder at the position corresponding to the (111) GaAs cubic phase. The PA absorption spectra showed a remarkable shift to higher energies of the absorption edge as the r.f. power decreases corresponding to the films with higher N concentrations. Thermal annealing of the GaNAs films at temperatures of 450 °C produced a GaAs nanocrystalline phase with grain sizes in the range 10–13 nm, as confirmed by the XRD measurements that showed a well-defined peak in the (111) GaAs direction, and also by the PA spectra which showed an absorption band at energies around 1.45 eV due to the quantum confinement effects. PL spectra of thermal-annealed GaNAs films showed a very intense emission at 1.5 eV which we have associated to transitions between the first electron excited level and acceptor states in the GaAs nanocrystallites.