Spatially resolved residual stress assessments of GaN film on sapphire substrate by cathodoluminescence piezospectroscopy

Abstract

Two cathodoluminescence piezospectroscopic (CL/PS) approaches for measuring the residual stress distribution in thin films are critically examined and compared using an intrinsic GaN film sample (2.5μm in thickness) grown on a (0001)-oriented sapphire substrate. The first approach invokes an analytical model to fit experimental stress distributions as retrieved in both film and substrate at the edge of an artificially created cross section of the sample. Such an edge-stress distribution takes into account both the thermal expansion mismatch between the film and substrate and the mechanistics of film growth process. In the second approach, we directly and nondestructively measure the bulk residual stress field from the sample top surface on the film side using an increase in electron beam voltage (maintaining a constant beam power) as a means for screening the film subsurface. In this latter case, the combined effects of self-absorption and misfit dislocations on the GaN spectrum severely affect the CL/PS assessments; therefore, they need to be analyzed separately from the effect of stress. After spectral deconvolution of the obtained stress profiles, according to either in-plane or in-depth response functions of the electron probe for both film and substrate, cross-section and top-surface stress data were compared and discussed in an effort to substantiate the feasibility of spatially resolved CL/PS approach for the examination of residual stress distributions in film structures.