Chemical liquid deposition of gallium nitride thin films on siloxane-anchored self-assembled monolayers

Chemical liquid deposition was used to form Ga- and N-containing thin films on single-crystal silicon and sapphire substrates. Films were grown from a gallium carbodiimide-based polymeric precursor solution at room temperature on the substrates which were previously functionalized by amine-terminated self-assembled monolayers followed by pyrolysis in NH3 at 900 °C. On sapphire, epitaxial growth of hexagonal gallium nitride islands was found after pyrolysis. The composition, morphology and microstructure of the films were characterized by Auger electron spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and scanning and transmission electron microscopy.