In situ asymmetric island sidewall growth of high-quality semipolar (112) GaN on m-plane sapphire

Abstract

In situ asymmetric island sidewall growth (AISG) was developed to enhance Ga-face facet growth and improve the crystalline quality of (112) GaN epilayers on m-plane sapphire substrates. In the early growth stage island shaping and sidewall faceting were distinct and controlled by growth design. Using in situ AISG, {0002} instead of {103} sidewall facets were formed on the Ga-rich island surface, which eliminated formation of a {103} phase during subsequent layer growth of semipolar GaN. Enhanced Ga-face sidewall facet growth led to +c regions overlapping −c regions, which reduced defect density. Pure semipolar (112) epilayers with a reduced surface striation density and a basal-plane stacking fault density of 8 × 10³ cm⁻¹ were obtained. The observation of a narrow E^H₂ peak and an intense E₁(LO) peak in Raman spectra indicates that almost strain-free high-quality semipolar (112) GaN films were achieved. The photoluminescence emission intensity from the (112) GaN film prepared by in situ AISG was dominated by band-edge emission and enhanced ∼4 times more than that from conventional (112) GaN.