Effect of anisotropic strain on phonons in a-plane and c-plane GaN layers

We have studied phonons in two types of anisotropically strained GaN films: c-plane GaN films grown on a-plane sapphire and a-plane GaN films grown on r-plane sapphire. The anisotropic strain in the films is determined by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) in different measuring geometries and the phonon parameters have been assessed by generalized infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry (GIRSE). The effect of strain anisotropy on GaN phonon frequencies is presented and the phonon deformation potentials aA1 (TO), bA1 (TO), cE1 (TO) and cE1 (LO) are determined. © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.