American Institute of Physics, Applied Physics Letters, 14(104), p. 141914
DOI: 10.1063/1.4871302
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Low-defect density InN films were grown on Si(111) by molecular beam epitaxy over an ∼1 μm thick GaN/AlN buffer/nucleation layer. Electron microscopy observations revealed the presence of inverse polarity domains propagating across the GaN layer and terminating at the sharp GaN/InN (0001¯) interface, whereas no inversion domains were detected in InN. The systematic annihilation of GaN inversion domains at the GaN/InN interface is explained in terms of indium incorporation on the Ga-terminated inversion domains forming a metal bonded In-Ga bilayer, a structural instability known as the basal inversion domain boundary, during the initial stages of InN growth on GaN.