The polarity of the lattice of bulk single GaN crystals and the polarity of homoepitaxial and heteroepitaxial-on-sapphire GaN thin films has been studied using convergent beam electron diffraction. Diffraction patterns obtained at 200 kV for the 〈1–100〉 projection of GaN were matched with calculated patterns. The lattice orientations of two commonly observed bulk single-crystal facets were identified. It is shown that the smooth facets in single crystals correspond to the (0001), Ga-terminated, lattice planes, whereas the rough facets correspond to the (0001̄), N-terminated, planes. It is also shown that metalorganic chemical vapor deposition epitaxy retains the polarity of the substrate, i.e., no inversion boundaries were observed. Heteroepitaxy on sapphire is shown to grow in the (0001), Ga-terminated orientation.

A combination of transmission electron microscopy imaging and diffraction techniques is used to characterize crystal defects in homoepitaxial GaN thin films. The Burgers vectors of dislocations is established by combining large-angle convergent beam electron diffraction and conventional diffraction contrast techniques. It is shown that dislocations with Burgers vectors c, a, and c+a are present. Evidence is presented that dislocation segments lying in the interfacial plane are dissociated on a fine scale. The significance of the observations for understanding homoepitaxial growth of GaN is discussed.

IntroductionThe recent developments in III-Vnitride thin-film technology has produced significant advances in highperformance devices operating in the blue and green range of the visible spectrum. These materials are grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on (0001) sapphire substrates. 1 Highly specular surfaces are possible by use of low-temperature buffer layers following the method developed by Akasaki et al. 2 The thin films thus grown have an interesting microstructure, quite

The lattice structure of the AlN/SiC interface has been studied in cross section by high-resolution transmission-electron microscopy. Lattice images show planar and crystallographically abrupt interfaces. The atomic arrangement at the plane of the interface is analyzed based on the image characteristics. Possible bonding configurations are discussed. Variations in local image contrast and interplanar separations are used to identify atomic bonding configurations consistent with the lattice images.

Growing thicker BAlN films while maintaining single‐phase wurtzite structure and boron content over 10% has been challenging. In this study, we report on the growth of 100 nm‐thick single‐phase wurtzite BAlN films with boron contents up to 14.4% by MOCVD. Flow‐modulated epitaxy was employed to increase diffusion length of group‐III atoms and reduce parasitic reactions between the metalorganics and NH3. A large growth efficiency of ∼2000 μm mol−1 was achieved as a result. Small B/III ratios up to 17% in conjunction with high temperatures up to 1010 °C were utilized to prevent formation of the cubic phase and maintain wurtzite structure.