A freestanding GaN/HfO₂ membrane grown by molecular beam epitaxy for GaNSi hybrid MEMS

Combination of GaN light source and Si-microelectromechanical systems (MEMSs) is a promising hybrid structure for optical MEMS. As one of GaNSi hybrid structures, a freestanding GaN/HfO₂ membrane was fabricated on Si substrate. Unlike conventional GaN membrane on Si substrate, the fabricated membrane had a tensile stress by using the HfO₂ layer. Therefore, the GaN/HfO₂ membrane was flat enough to be useful for several MEMS. The GaN crystal was grown by molecular beam epitaxy on the HfO₂ layer deposited on Si substrate. The surface of the HfO₂ layer was nitrified before GaN crystal growth, and thus, a part of HfO₂surface was changed to HfN, the lattice of which matched well to that of GaN. The characteristics of the GaN crystal grown on the nitrified HfO₂ layer were also investigated.