Effect of plasma discharge pulse length for GaN film crystallinity on sapphire substrate by high density convergent plasma sputtering device

Plasma discharge pulse length (tPLength) was investigated for its impact on the crystallinity of GaN films deposited on a sapphire substrate using a high-density convergent plasma sputtering device (CPSD). The study covered tPLength values from 1 to 200 ms, maintaining the substrate temperature at 200 °C. GaN films showed preferential orientation along the (0002) plane for all tPLength settings. X-ray diffraction analysis revealed a heteroepitaxial-like growth pattern with a sixfold symmetric diffraction pattern corresponding to GaN{10−10} planes. At a tPLength of 200 ms, the full width at half maximum of the rocking curve at GaN (0002) diffraction angle decreased to 1.6°. Optimizing the deposition rate per plasma discharge pulse with CPSD indicated the importance of selecting an optimal tPLength for achieving desirable crystalline properties in GaN film sputtering deposition.