Orthodox etching of HVPE-grown GaN in molten eutectic of KOH + NaOH (E etch) and in hot sulfuric and phosphoric acids (HH etch) is discussed in detail. Three size grades of pits are formed by the preferential E etching at the outcrops of threading dislocations on the Ga-polar surface of GaN. Using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) as the calibration tool it is shown that the largest pits are formed on screw, intermediate on mixed and the smallest on edge dislocations. This sequence of size does not follow the sequence of the Burgers values (and thus the magnitude of the elastic energy) of corresponding dislocations. This discrepancy is explained taking into account the effect of decoration of dislocations, the degree of which is expected to be different depending on the lattice deformation around the dislocations, i.e. on the edge component of the Burgers vector. It is argued that the large scatter of optimal etching temperatures required for revealing all three types of dislocations in HVPE-grown samples from different sources also depends upon the energetic status of dislocations. The role of kinetics for reliability of etching in both etches is discussed and the way of optimization of the etching parameters is shown.

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Thin films on substrates are usually in a stressed state. An important, but trivial, contribution to that stress stems from the difference in thermal expansion coefficient of substrate and film. Much more interesting are the intrinsic stresses, resulting from the growth and/or microstructure of the film. Intrinsic compressive stress was explained by d'Heurle in 1970. Intrinsic tensile stress for recrystallizing metal films was treated succesfully by Doljack and Hoffman in 1972. In the present letter we explain the occurrence of tensile stress in nonrecrystallizing metal films. The explanation is based on modern grain growth models and accurate stress measurements. The key ingredient to the explanation is the proof of the existence of a stress gradient in nonrecrystallizing metal films.

SummaryThe dual-beam microscope is a combination of a focused ion beam with an electron beam. The instrument used in this work is also equipped with an energy-dispersive X-ray system for local elemental analysis. This powerful tool gives access to specific features inside a material. Two different applications are presented in this paper: (1) cross-sections and transmission electron microscope specimens cut in order to investigate the interface between an aluminium substrate and its epoxy coating; and (2) a grain boundary in a Cu 3 Au alloy. In both cases, the dual beam succeeded where other methods failed.

We have investigated the dielectric properties of thin layers of five oxides of transition metals (Ta 2 O 5 , HfO 2 , ZrO 2 , (ZrO 2 ) 0.91 (Y 2 O 3 ) 0.09 , and Sn 0.2 Zr 0.2 Ti 0.6 O 2 ) sputtered from ceramic targets at different pressures. We find that layers deposited at low pressure behave as expected from literature, whereas layers deposited at high pressure all exhibit an anomalous dielectric response similar to that reported for the so-called ''colossal'' dielectric constant materials. The characterization of the thickness, frequency, and temperature dependence of the capacitance, as well as the comparison of film properties before and after annealing show that the anomalous dielectric response is due to quenched-in vacancies that act as dopants and cause the insulating layers to behave as semiconductors. An increase in quenched-in vacancies concentration with sputtering pressure results in a transition from normal to anomalous dielectric response and gradual increase in layer conductivity. In contrast, the refractive index does not depend on sputtering pressure. This observation indicates the possible application of these materials as transparent coatings with a tunable electrical conductivity.