A reduction in the 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

heteronucleation of m-plane GaN and the presence of N-face basal-plane side-walls

of three-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

as low as 105/cm. Anisotropy in on-axis X-ray rocking curves, a salient feature of

m-plane GaN hetero-epitaxial layers, was greatly reduced.

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