Bending stability of GaN grown on a metallic flexible substrate by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

GaN thin films were grown on flexible metallic substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. MgO buffer layers were deposited by spin coating on Ni-Mo-Cr (Hastelloy C-276) alloy tapes that were used as substrates. The structural characterization of the GaN/MgO/hastelloy samples was performed by x-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. The obtained nanometric films have the stable hexagonal phase (alpha-GaN) with an average crystallite size of 18 nm. The long and short range order of GaN decrease when the structure is bent. The most significant variations in the structural properties occur between 100 and 250 bending cycles.