Spatial distribution of dislocations in relation to a substructure in high-quality GaN film

The dislocation distribution of high-quality single-crystal gallium nitride (GaN) films grown by the hybrid vapor phase epitaxy was analyzed. This study examined the domain structure of GaN from the dislocation distribution on the macroscale by optical microscopy. The surface structure of GaN consisted of domains with microcolumns as the substructure. The inner domains contained a lower density of dislocations but a large number of these dislocations were observed along the domain boundaries. The existence of a domain boundary structure doubly increased the total dislocation density.