Faceted inversion domain boundary in GaN films doped with Mg

Abstract

Homoepitaxial GaN films, doped with Mg, were grown by rf-plasma molecular-beam epitaxy on Ga-polarity (0001) templates. Convergent-beam electron diffraction analysis establishes that the film polarity changes from [0001] to [0001_] when the Mg flux during growth is approximately 1 ML/s. Secondary ion mass spectrometry indicates a doping concentration of ∼1020 cm−3 in the film where the inversion occurs, and a reduced Mg incorporation in the [0001_] material. Transmission electron microscopy shows that the inversion domain boundary is faceted predominantly along the {0001} and {h,h,−2h,l} planes, with l/h approximately equal to 3. Using first-principles total energy calculations, we show that the {h,h,−2h,l} segments of the boundary are stabilized by the incorporation of Mg in threefold coordinated lattice sites.