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Epitaxial growth of wurtzite AlN films on Si {111} results in 19% lattice misfit, which gives rise to a large density of threading dislocations with different recombination rates of electron–hole pairs. Here, we investigate types and distributions of threading dislocations of the MOVPE-grown 200 nm AlN/Si {111} film, whereby the dislocations are visualized using the technique of wet chemical etching. Atomic force microscopy suggests the existence of four different types of etch pits without any topological differences. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscope studies on etched samples are employed to associate the types of dislocations with the shapes of their etch pits. The recombination activity of individual dislocations was quantified by measuring the electron beam induced current and by correlative measurement of topography, secondary electron imaging, and the electron beam absorbed current. The strongest recombination activity was obtained for the m + c-type (mixed), c-type (screw), and a + c-type (mixed) threading dislocations, whereas the a-type (edge) threading dislocations were nearly recombination-inactive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strain-related piezoelectric polarization is detrimental to the radiative recombination efficiency for InGaN-based long wavelength micro-LEDs. In this paper, partial strain relaxation of InGaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) on the wafer scale has been demonstrated by adopting a partially relaxed InGaN superlattice (SL) as the pseudo-substrate. Such a pseudo-substrate was obtained through an electro-chemical etching method, in which a sub-surface InGaN/InGaN superlattice was etched via threading dislocations acting as etching channels. The degree of strain relaxation in MQWs was studied by x-ray reciprocal space mapping, which shows an increase of the in-plane lattice constant with the increase of etching voltage used in fabricating the pseudo-substrate. The reduced strain in the InGaN SL pseudo-substrate was demonstrated to be transferable to InGaN MQWs grown on top of it, and the engineering of the degree of strain relaxation via porosification was achieved. The highest relaxation degree of 44.7% was achieved in the sample with the porous InGaN SL template etched under the highest etching voltage. Morphological and structural properties of partially relaxed InGaN MQWs samples were investigated with the combination of atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. The increased porosity of the InGaN SL template and the newly formed small V-pits during QW growth are suggested as possible origins for the increased strain relaxation of InGaN MQWs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]