https://doi.org/10.1051/epjap:2004119-3
Plastic relaxation through buried cracks in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures
Centre de Recherche sur l'Hétéro-Épitaxie et ses Applications, CNRS
rue Bernard Grégory, Sophia Antipolis, 06560 Valbonne, France
Corresponding author: Jean.Marc.Bethoux@crhea.cnrs.fr
Received:
4
July
2003
Accepted:
28
January
2004
Published online: 15 July 2004
Due to high lattice mismatch, heterostructures of III-nitrides are subject to plastic relaxation. In this paper, we focus on the relaxation of AlGaN films grown on GaN. This relaxation is realised by cracking followed by the introduction of misfit dislocations. We describe those mechanisms and present a method to grow thick high quality crack-free AlGaN layers. This method uses jointly plastic relaxation and lateral growth.
PACS: 61.72.Ff – Direct observation of dislocations and other defects (etch pits, decoration, electron microscopy, x-ray topography, etc.) / 62.20.Mk – Fatigue, brittleness, fracture, and cracks / 62.40.+i – Anelasticity, internal friction, stress relaxation, and mechanical resonances
© EDP Sciences, 2004
