Influence of domain boundaries on polarity of GaN grown on sapphire

GaN films were grown on sapphire substrates by laser-induced reactive epitaxy. The domains in the films were determined to be the Ga-polarity by the convergent beam electron diffraction (CBED) technique, while the adjacent matrices had the Npolarity. The domain boundaries were characterized as inversion domain boundaries (IDBs). An atomic structure of the IDB is proposed based on high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) investigations. Control of the polarity of GaN/ sapphire films was achieved by suppressing the formation of IDBs with an interlayer of AlGaN and a low-temperature GaN buffer layer