Local electronic structure of threading screw dislocation in wurtzite GaN

The atomic and electronic structure of the full-core threading screw dislocation in wurzite GaN has been investigated using a self-consistent density-functional tight-binding calculation. It is shown that the atoms are severely strained in a hexagonal atomic core, and an extra charge transfer of 0.12e occurs at the core atoms from Ga to N, in addition to the typical charge transfer of 0.56e for bulk GaN. Filled and unfilled gap states are found to be spread over the entire band gap. The p states of the core N-atorn mostly contribute to the tail states of valence and conduction bands, whereas the deep levels are heavily localized at the Ga and N core atoms. The coexistence of acceptor and donor gap states in the vicinity of the screw dislocations could be an origin of the leakage currents observed in GaN-based devices. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.