A reduction in basal-plane stacking faults in m-plane GaN, grown onto m-plane SiC, was reported. The origin of basal-plane stacking faults was linked to the heteronucleation of m-plane GaN and the presence of N-face basal-plane side-walls of 3-dimensional islands. Graded AlGaN layers helped to alleviate mismatched nucleation and the generation of basal-plane stacking faults. Transmission electron microscopy showed that the density of basal-plane stacking faults was decreased to the low 105/cm level. Anisotropy in on-axis X-ray rocking curves, an important feature of m-plane GaN hetero-epitaxial layers, was greatly reduced. A possible mechanism of basal-plane stacking fault generation, and a demonstration of improved InGaN/GaN quantum-well emission were presented.

Reduction of Stacking Fault Density in m-Plane GaN Grown on SiC. Y.S.Cho, Q.Sun, I.H.Lee, T.S.Ko, C.D.Yerino, J.Han, B.H.Kong, H.K.Cho, S.Wang: Applied Physics Letters, 2008, 93[11], 111904