Stacking fault formation in the long wavelength InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells grown on m-plane GaN

Abstract

Nonpolar GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs) show great promise. However, long wavelength emitters (λ>500 nm) have reduced performance in comparison with violet and blue nonpolar emitters. We present results of transmission electron microscopy studies of long wavelength (11¯00) m-plane GaN LED series and m-plane GaN LDs grown on high quality bulk GaN substrates. I1 basal plane stacking faults form in the high In content InxGa1−xN quantum wells (x∼0.26) for thicker wells. The I1 faults are bounded by sessile Frank–Shockley partial dislocations that likely limit the radiative efficiency of long wavelength m-plane emitters.