Analysis of compositional instability of InGaN by Monte Carlo simulation

Relationships between growth conditions and atomic arrangements in InGaN thin films were investigated by Monte Carlo simulation incorporating data obtained from thermodynamic analyses and empirical interatomic potential calculations. The results suggest that compositional fluctuation was enhanced during the site-exchanging process instead of the adsorption process in the case of low indium input partial pressure. Moreover, it was found that no gross fluctuation in composition occurs but atomic-sized clustering occurs in thin films. The results agree with the experimental results [Smeeton et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 83 (2003) 5419].