In-plane epitaxial relationships between a-plane sapphire substrates and GaN layers grown by different techniques

Abstract

We have studied GaN films grown on a-plane sapphire substrate by both hydride vapour phase epitaxy (HVPE) and metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy (MOVPE) using X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The in-plane orientation relationships between the epitaxial films and the substrate are determined to be [112̄0]GaN||[0001]sapphire and [11̄00]GaN||[11̄00]sapphire in the HVPE growth, while [11̄00]GaN||[0001]sapphire and [112̄0]GaN||[11̄00]sapphire are found in the MOVPE growth. In a few films of both types a simultaneous presence of two domains, representing the two in-plane relationships, is observed although the preferable one in each type of films is strongly dominating. We propose that the two in-plane orientations of GaN are generally possible on the a-sapphire substrate and are related to the atom termination of the sapphire surface determined by the substrate pre-treatment used in the different growth methods.