Inclined crystallographic planes of the wurtzite structure were investigated in comparison with the zincblende structure in terms of surface geometry characteristics. The ball–stick model indicates that the semipolar \( \left( {1{\bar 1} 01} \right) \) surface possesses a surface polarity resembling the anion polarity, which agrees with the common experimental observations of epitaxial growth preference for the cation-polarity \( \left( {1{\bar 1} 0{\bar 1} } \right) \) surface over the \( \left( {1{\bar 1} 01} \right) \) surface. The wurtzite \( \left\{ {11{\bar 2} 2} \right\} \) surface was found to share geometrical similarities with the zincblende {100} surface uniquely among the possible semipolar planes. This finding encourages epitaxial growth on the \( \left\{ {11{\bar 2} 2} \right\} \) plane of wurtzite semiconductors, e.g., GaN, with the potential of avoiding atomic step formations typically associated with off-axis crystallographic planes.
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Acknowledgements
The principal author is grateful to Prof. A. Atsushi Yamaguchi and Dr. Kenichi Y. Nishi for discussions on the zincblende structure and to Prof. Mitsuru Funato for the polarization discussions. The authors acknowledge the support of the Solid State Lighting and Energy Center at UCSB.
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Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
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Masui, H., Cruz, S.C., Nakamura, S. et al. Geometrical Characteristics and Surface Polarity of Inclined Crystallographic Planes of the Wurtzite and Zincblende Structures. J. Electron. Mater. 38, 756–760 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-009-0777-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11664-009-0777-4