Detailed surface analysis of V-defects in GaN films on patterned silicon(111) substrates by metal–organic chemical vapour deposition

The growth mechanism of V-defects in GaN films was investigated. It was observed that the crystal faces of both the sidewall of a V-defect and the sidewall of the GaN film boundary belong to the same plane family of , which suggests that the formation of the V-defect is a direct consequence of spontaneous growth like that of the boundary facet. However, the growth rate of the V-defect sidewall is much faster than that of the boundary facet when the V-defect is filling up, implying that lateral growth of planes is not the direct cause of the change in size of V-defects. Since V-defects originate from dislocations, an idea was proposed to correlate the growth of V-defects with the presence of dislocations. Specifically, the change in size of the V-defect is determined by the growth rate around dislocations and the growth rate around dislocations is determined by the growth conditions.