Nanoindentation study on insight of plasticity related to dislocation density and crystal orientation in GaN

Yield shear stress dependence on dislocation density and crystal orientation was studied in GaN by nanoindentation examination. The yield shear stress decreased with increasing dislocation density, and it decreased with decreasing nanoindentation strain-rate. It reached and coincided at 11.5GPa for both quasi-static deformed c-plane and m-plane GaN. Taking into account theoretical Peierls-Nabarro stress and yield stress for each slip system, these phenomena were concluded to be an evidence of heterogeneous mechanism associated plastic deformation in GaN crystal. Transmission electron microscopy and molecular dynamics simulation also supported the mechanism with obtained r-plane dislocation line. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4767372]