Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 February 2011
The effect of high temperature, high pressure annealing on morphology, optical and structural properties of free-standing GaN films grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy is studied. The annealing is found to change the intensities of the photoluminescence peaks as a result of a redistribution of the impurities and native defects in the thick GaN films. A positron annihilation study shows a decrease of the Ga vacancy-related defects below the detection limit after the annealing. The defect redistribution is correlated with a flattening of the stress distribution across the thickness, as revealed by micro Raman study, and with a decrease of the curvature of the annealed free-standing films.