Observation of individual stacking faults in GaN microcrystals by x-ray nanodiffraction

X-ray nanodiffraction was used for the investigation of basal stacking faults in a-GaN microcrystallites. The method made it possible to find the positions of individual stacking faults in a chosen crystallite, and the resulting positions were compared with the observation of individual faults by electron channeling contrast in scanning electron microscopy. The x-ray diffraction data revealed that the faults occur in closely positioned pairs; the stacking faults in a pair have opposite displacement vectors.