The presence of optically active stacking faults on {11▪2} facets on basal and prismatic planes in epitaxially laterally overgrown GaN was reported. The structure of the faults was analyzed by using diffraction contrast electron microscopy. It was shown that stacking faults on {11▪0} prismatic planes involved a lattice displacement of ½<1¯1▪1>, parallel to the fault plane. They appeared as jogs connecting basal-plane stacking faults, the latter with a lattice displacement of 1/6<20▪3>. These faults were observed only in the laterally overgrown regions that grew on {11▪2} planes. This indicated that the stacking fault formation was closely related to the orientation of the growth surface. Possible formation mechanisms for these faults were considered. A direct correlation between transmission electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence showed that these prismatic-plane and basal-plane stacking faults were optically active; with light emissions at 3.30 and 3.41eV, respectively.

Prismatic Stacking Faults in Epitaxially Laterally Overgrown GaN. J.Mei, S.Srinivasan, R.Liu, F.A.Ponce, Y.Narukawa, T.Mukai: Applied Physics Letters , 2006, 88[14], 141912 (3pp)