TEM study of Mg-doped bulk GaN crystals

Transmission electron microscopy was applied to cross-sectioned samples to study surface morphology, sample polarity and defect distribution in bulk GaN samples doped with Mg. These crystals were grown from a Ga melt under high hydrostatic pressure of Nitrogen. It was shown that the types of defects and their distribution along the c-axis depends strongly on sample polarity. Based on this finding the growth rate along the c-axis for the two polar directions was compared and shown to be approximately ten times larger for Ga polarity than for N-polarity. In the part of the crystals with Ga polarity pyramidal defects with a base consisting of high energy stacking faults were found. The parts of the crystals grown with N-polarity were either defect free or contained regularly spaced stacking faults. Growth of these regularly spaced cubic monolayers is polarity dependent; this structure was formed only for the growth with N polarity and only for the crystals doped with Mg. Formation of this superstructure is similar to the polytypoid structure formed in AlN crystals rich in oxygen. It is also likely that oxygen can decorate the cubic monolayers and compensate Mg. This newly observed structure may shed light on the difficulties of p-doping in GaN:Mg.