Morphology and Polarity of GaN Single Crystals Synthesized by the Na Flux Method

The correlation between morphology and polarity was investigated for GaN single crystals synthesized by the Na flux method. The polarity was identified by using anomalous X-ray dispersion. Colorless transparent prismatic single crystals were classified into three types. The first had a smooth basal plane face and no hexagonal pyramidal faces, the second had smooth pyramidal faces, and the third had a rough basal plane face and rough pyramidal faces. The prismatic crystals with smooth surfaces had N-polarity and grew in the −c direction, whereas the crystals having rough surfaces had Ga-polarity and grew in the +c direction. In colorless transparent platelet single crystals, one side of the basal planes had a mirror smooth surface, while the other side had many step edges and hexagonal pits. The smooth basal plane and the rough basal plane were the (0001̄) N-face and (0001) Ga-face, respectively. Black pyramidal crystals had a smooth (0001) basal plane face corresponding to the Ga-face.