title: Edge Dislocations Triggered Surface Instability in Tensile Epitaxial Hexagonal Nitride Semiconductor.
abstract: Understanding the semiconductor surface and its properties including surface stability, atomic morphologies, and even electronic states is of great importance not only for understanding surface growth kinetics but also for evaluating the degree to which they affect the devices' performance. Here, we report studies on the nanoscale fissures related surface instability in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. Experimental results reveal that edge dislocations are actually the root cause of the surface instability. The nanoscale fissures are initially triggered by the edge dislocations, and the subsequent evolution is associated with tensile lattice-mismatch stress and hydrogen etching. Our findings resolve a long-standing problem on the surface instability in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures and will also lead to new understandings of surface growth kinetics in other hexagonal semiconductor systems.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jianpeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xuelin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Anqi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Panfeng
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ji
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Yuxia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Chenguang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: He
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Lisheng
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Fujun
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Ning
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xinqiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Artificial Microstructure and Mesoscopic Physics, School of Physics, Peking University , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.|Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter , Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Shen
keywords: TEM; edge dislocations; hexagonal nitrides; nanoscale fissures; surface instability