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Structure investigations of nonpolar GaN layers
Author(s) -
NEUMANN W.,
MOGILATENKO A.,
WERNICKE T.,
RICHTER E.,
WEYERS M.,
KNEISSL M.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2818.2009.03249.x
Subject(s) - stacking , nucleation , planar , materials science , transmission electron microscopy , crystallography , microstructure , basal plane , stacking fault , layer (electronics) , dislocation , crystal (programming language) , plane (geometry) , condensed matter physics , optoelectronics , composite material , chemistry , nanotechnology , geometry , physics , computer graphics (images) , mathematics , organic chemistry , computer science , programming language
Summary The microstructure of nonpolar m‐plane oriented GaN layers deposited on (100)γ‐LiAlO 2 was analysed by transmission electron microscopy. This study shows that the films contain a large number of defects. The most dominant defects in the m‐plane GaN are intrinsic I 1 basal plane stacking faults (∼10 4 cm −1 ), threading dislocations (∼10 9 cm −2 ) as well as a complex defect network consisting of planar defects located on prismatic GaN and differently inclined pyramidal planes. A large number of the stacking faults nucleate at the GaN/LiAlO 2 interface. Furthermore, the inclined planar defects act as additional nucleation sites for the basal plane stacking faults. A decreasing crystal quality with an increasing layer thickness can be explained by this defect formation mechanism.