Structural properties of laterally overgrown GaN

Structural properties of epitaxially laterally overgrown (ELO) GaN on patterned GaN 'substrates' by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) have been investigated. The epitaxially lateral overgrowth of GaN on SiO₂ areas is realized and a planar ELO GaN film is obtained. Scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope (TEM) and atomic force microscope (AFM) are used to study the structure and surface morphology of the ELO GaN materials. AFM images indicate that no observable step termination is detected over a 4 μm² area in the ELO region. TEM observations indicate that the dislocation density is very low in the ELO region. No void at the coalescence interface is observed. Lattice bending as high as 3.3° is observed and attributed to pileup of threading dislocations coming from the underlying GaN "seeding layer" and tilting horizontally and quenching at the coalescence interface.