Eliminating stacking faults in semi-polar GaN by AlN interlayers

Abstract

We report on the elimination of stacking faults by the insertion of low-temperature AlN interlayers in nearly (1016) and (11¯04) oriented semi-polar GaN grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on Si(112) and Si(113), respectively. The elimination of these defects is visualized by cathodoluminescence (CL) as well as scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and STEM-CL. A possible annihilation mechanism is discussed which leads to the conclusion that the elimination mechanism is most likely valid for all layers with (11¯01) surfaces, enabling heteroepitaxial semi- and non-polar GaN free from stacking faults.