Defect structure of metal-organic chemical vapor deposition-grown epitaxial (0001) GaN/Al2O3

Defect structures were investigated by transmission electron microscopy for GaN/Al2O3 (0001) epilayers grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition using a two-step process. The defect structures, including threading dislocations, partial dislocation bounding stacking faults, and inversion domains, were analyzed by diffraction contrast, high-resolution imaging, and convergent beam diffraction. GaN film growth was initiated at 600 °C with a nominal 20 nm nucleation layer. This was followed by high-temperature growth at 1080 °C. The near-interfacial region of the films consists of a mixture of cubic and hexagonal GaN, which is characterized by a high density of stacking faults bounded by Shockley and Frank partial dislocations. The near-interfacial region shows a high density of inversion domains. Above ∼0.5 μm thickness, the film consists of isolated threading dislocations of either pure edge, mixed, or pure screw character with a total density of ∼7×108 cm−2. The threading dislocation reduction in these films is associated with cubic to hexagonal transformation of the nucleation layer region during high temperature growth.