Structural Characterization of Thick Gan Films Grown by Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy

Abstract

AbstractThe structural quality of GaN films grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) was characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), x-ray diffraction (XRD), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Films were grown up to 40μm on sapphire with either a GaC1 pretreatment prior to growth or on a ZnO buffer layer. Dislocation densities were found to decrease with increasing film thickness. This is attributed to the mixed nature of the defects present in the film which enabled dislocation annihilation. The thickest film had a defect density of 5×107 dislocations/cm2.