Determination of Al Composition in Strained AlGaN Layers

Al_xGa_1-xN/GaN heterostructures are grown on c-sapphire with the Al composition x from 0.2 to 0.4 and thicknesses from 20nm to 30nm. The lattice parameters a and c are determined from 2θ/ω scan. The AlGaN layers are found to be under tensile strain by using x-ray diffraction. Vegard’s law induces a large deviation in Al composition determination by only considering the linear relationship between one lattice parameter (a or c) and Al composition. The accurate determination of Al composition is only possible with consideration of both the lattice parameters a and c, by assuming the tetragonal distortion in the AlGaN layer. Additionally, the results obtained from x-ray diffraction are verified by Rutherford backscattering.