Role of oxygen at screw dislocations in GaN

Here we report the first direct atomic scale experimental observations of oxygen segregation to screw dislocations in GaN using correlated techniques in the scanning transmission electron microscope. The amount of oxygen present in each of the three distinct types of screw dislocation core is found to depend on the evolution and structure of the core, and thus gives rise to a varying concentration of localized states in the band gap. Contrary to previous theoretical predictions, the substitution of oxygen for nitrogen is observed to extend over many monolayers for the open core dislocation.