Centimeter-Transferable III-Nitride Membrane Enabled by Interfacial Adhesion Control for a Flexible Photosensitive Device

Yang Chen; Zhiming Shi; Shanli Zhang; Yuanyuan Yue; Hang Zang; Jianwei Ben; Ke Jiang; Yuping Jia; Xiaojuan Sun; Dabing Li

doi:10.1021/acsami.3c04213

Centimeter-Transferable III-Nitride Membrane Enabled by Interfacial Adhesion Control for a Flexible Photosensitive Device

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2023 Jul 5;15(26):31954-31965. doi: 10.1021/acsami.3c04213. Epub 2023 Jun 22.

Authors

Yang Chen^{1

2}, Zhiming Shi^{1

2}, Shanli Zhang^{1

2}, Yuanyuan Yue³, Hang Zang^{1

2}, Jianwei Ben^{1

2}, Ke Jiang^{1

2}, Yuping Jia^{1

2}, Xiaojuan Sun^{1

2}, Dabing Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Luminescence and Applications, Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun 130033, China.
² Center of Materials Science and Optoelectronics Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ School of Management Science and Information Engineering, Jilin University of Finance and Economics, Changchun 130117, China.

PMID: 37347541
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.3c04213

Abstract

Flexible III-nitride-based optoelectronic devices are crucial for the next-generation foldable/wearable lighting sterilization and sensor working in the ultraviolet (UV) region. However, the strong bonding effect at the epitaxial interface of III-nitride and bare sapphire substrate makes it difficult for epilayer separation and flexible applications. Although the emerging van der Waals epitaxy (vdWE) with graphene insertion layer offers a feasible route for weakening the interfacial adhesion, the intact centimeter-transferable III-nitride membrane still remains challenging. The spontaneous delamination occurs due to the too weak interfacial adhesion of pure vdW force, and on the contrary, the structural damage of graphene by high-temperature hydrogen etching during the III-nitride growth might also cause separation failure. Up to now, the efficient control of vdWE interfacial adhesion is still an on-going research hotspot. Herein, we demonstrate the interfacial adhesion control of III-nitride vdWE by utilizing graded high-temperature nitridation treatment of the graphene insertion layer, which generates defects and N doping in different levels. The corresponding epitaxial modes of pure-vdWE, quasi-vdWE, and mixed epitaxy are achieved according to the interfacial adhesion difference. It reveals that the quasi-vdWE enabled by small graphene defects and proper N doping triggers the low formation energy for AlN nucleation; meanwhile, the proper interfacial adhesion ensures the growth integrality and intact separation of III-nitride membrane in the centimeter scale. The UV resin-assisted bonding technique is proposed for the successful transfer of III-nitride onto a flexible substrate. The flexible photodetector is fabricated by using a graphene monolayer as the photocarrier transport channel, and it achieves a high device yield of 90%, retaining ∼60% of its initial performance after 250 bending cycles. This work offers the promising strategy for controlling vdWE interfacial adhesion, and the separable and transferable III-nitride membrane lays the foundation for advances of future UV foldable and wearable devices.

Keywords: III-nitride; MOCVD; flexible device; graphene; interfacial adhesion.