Crystallographically tilted and partially strain relaxed GaN grown on inclined {111} facets etched on Si(100) substrate

High resolution X-ray diffractometry (HR-XRD), Photoluminescence, Raman spectroscopy, and Transmission electron microscope measurements are reported for GaN deposited on a conventional Si(111) substrate and on the {111} facets etched on a Si(100) substrate. HR-XRD reciprocal space mappings showed that the GaN(0002) plane is tilted by about 0.63° ± 0.02° away from the exposed Si{111} growth surface for GaN deposited on the patterned Si(100) substrate, while no observable tilt existed between the GaN(0002) and Si(111) planes for GaN deposited on the conventional Si(111) substrate. The ratio of integrated intensities of the yellow to near band edge (NBE) luminescence (I_YL/I_NBE) was determined to be about one order of magnitude lower in the case of GaN deposited on the patterned Si(100) substrate compared with GaN deposited on the conventional Si(111) substrate. The Raman E₂(high) optical phonon mode at 565.224 ± 0.001 cm ^-1 with a narrow full width at half maximum of 1.526 ± 0.002 cm^-1 was measured, for GaN deposited on the patterned Si(100) indicating high material quality. GaN deposition within the trench etched on the Si(100) substrate occurred via diffusion and mass-transport limited mechanism. This resulted in a differential GaN layer thickness from the top (i.e., 1.8 μm) of the trench to the bottom (i.e., 0.3 μm) of the trench. Mixed-type dislocation constituted about 80% of the total dislocations in the GaN grown on the inclined Si{111} surface etched on Si(100).