Epitaxial GaN layers which were grown onto sapphire contained a very high density of defects, such as threading dislocations, stacking faults and inversion domain boundaries. A high-resolution transmission electron microscopic analysis of basal stacking faults was performed here. Two faults were identified: I1 and I2. The formation of the I1 fault was based upon the climb-dissociation of 1/3<11•0> or [00•1] perfect dislocations, whereas the I2 fault was attributed to shear of the structure; leading to a partial dislocation loop.

HREM Study of Stacking Faults in GaN Layers Grown over Sapphire Substrate. V.Potin, P.Ruterana, G.Nouet: Journal of Physics - Condensed Matter, 2000, 12[49], 10301-6