The heterogeneous nucleation of threading dislocations on partial dislocations in III-nitride epilayers.

ABSTRACT: III-nitride compound semiconductors are breakthrough materials regarding device applications. However, their heterostructures suffer from very high threading dislocation (TD) densities that impair several aspects of their performance. The physical mechanisms leading to TD nucleation in these materials are still not fully elucidated. An overlooked but apparently important mechanism is their heterogeneous nucleation on domains of basal stacking faults (BSFs). Based on experimental observations by transmission electron microscopy, we present a concise model of this phenomenon occurring in III-nitride alloy heterostructures. Such domains comprise overlapping intrinsic I₁ BSFs with parallel translation vectors. Overlapping of two BSFs annihilates most of the local elastic strain of t

SUBMITTER: Smalc-Koziorοwska J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7566635 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature