An investigation of structural properties of GaN films grown on patterned sapphire substrates by MOVPE

GaN films were fabricated by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on patterned sapphire substrates (PSSs) with either direct or inverse type patterned structures. Both of these two types of PSSs had their own unique GaN growth process which depart from the standard growth on the planar c-plane. GaN films on PSSs showed decreased threading dislocation (TD) density. However, differences between the crystal quality of the GaN films grown on PSSs were observed. It was also found out with one of the pattern type that the TD density varied laterally and followed the periodicity of the pattern on the sapphire surface. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.