Mosaic Structure Evolution in GaN Films with Annealing Time Grown by Metalorganic Chemical Vapour Deposition

We investigate mosaic structure evolution of GaN films annealed for a long time at 800°C grown on sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition by high-resolution x-ray diffraction. The result show that residual stress in GaN films is relaxed by generating edge-type threading dislocations (TDs) instead of screw-type TDs. Compared to as-grown GaN films, the annealed ones have larger mean twist angles corresponding to higher density of edge-type TDs but smaller mean tilt angles corresponding to lower density of screw-type TDs films. Due to the increased edge-type TD density, the lateral coherence lengths of the annealed GaN films also decrease. The results obtained from chemical etching experiment and grazing-incidence x-ray diffraction (GIXRD) also support the proposed structure evolution.