It was recalled that, because of their similar crystalline structures and small lattice mismatch, non-polar (11•0) 6H-SiC was expected to be a good substrate for the growth of non-polar (11•0) III–nitride films. It was demonstrated here that local reproduction of the basal-plane stacking introduced numerous (1.3 x 106/cm) planar defects into AlN films deposited onto (11•0) 6H-SiC. Also, tensile strain in AlN in the [00•1] direction resulted in cracking of the film at thicknesses as low as 100nm. Plastic relaxation was favoured because the only slip systems available for ductile relaxation were pyramidal systems involving a+c dislocations, which had a high activation energy.

Influence of Stacking Sequences and Lattice Parameter Differences on the Microstructure of Nonpolar AlN Films Grown on (11•0) 6H-SiC by Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy. P.Vennegues, S.Founta, H.Mariette, B.Daudin: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics, 2010, 49[4], 040201