Characterisation of nitride thin films by electron backscattered diffraction

In this paper, we describe the technique of electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and illustrate its use in the characterisation of nitride thin films by describing our results from a silicon-doped 3 μm thick GaN epilayer grown on a sapphire substrate misoriented by 10° towards the m-plane (10-10). We show that the EBSD technique may be used to reveal the relative orientation of an epilayer with respect to its substrate (a 90° rotation between the GaN epilayer and sapphire substrate is observed) and to determine its tilt (the GaN epilayer was found to be tilted by 12±3° towards [10-10]GaN).