Strain effects in ZnO layers deposited on 6H-SiC

Correlation in crystallite sizes and defects of epitaxial ZnO layers deposited on 6H-SiC substrates has been addressed. The biaxial strain governs the ZnO crystallites for the layer thickness of ∼400nm. The misfit dislocations were observed in nucleation and theater is the columnar growth mode diffracted in transmission electron microscopy. The columnar growth mode is a symbol of stacking faults that appear due to imbalanced interface chemistry in the II-VI/IV materials system, together with the complex impurity matrix. These defects are the main source of nonradiative recombination centers in ZnO epitaxy resulting in shorter exciton lifetimes examined in time-resolved photoluminescence measurements.