Surface morphologies of MOCVD-grown GaN films on sapphire studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

The surface morphologies of MOCVD GaN films grown on sapphire substrates have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). High quality STM images could not be obtained prior to cleaning the samples in HF, hot HCl or 2 M NaOH. STM images of the GaN films showed that the surfaces consisted of curved step edges and interlocking terraces, which were roughly 224 nm wide. Surface pits approximately 2–5 nm deep and 50–80 nm wide were observed on the GaN films, and these pits were preferentially located at a juncture between two step edges. Previous studies in the literature involving MOCVD-grown GaN on sapphire have demonstrated that the surface pits are associated with screw-component threading dislocations. Therefore, the number of screw-component threading dislocations in these GaN films is estimated as 6.3×108 cm−2 from the number surface pits observed in the STM images. X-ray photoelectron studies indicated that the major surface contaminants before cleaning were carbon and oxygen. Treatment in HF or HCl removed oxygen from the surface while treatment in NaOH was more effective at removing surface carbon.