Through nanoscratch experiments with a spherical diamond indenter, a contrastive study of the nanotribological properties of Ga- and N-faced gallium nitride (GaN) samples was carried out. Nanoindentation results revealed that the elastic modulus of the Ga-faced GaN sample was slightly higher than that of N-faced GaN sample. Particularly, Ga- and N-faced GaN samples exhibited rather different nanotribological properties, and the Ga-faced sample showed a stronger wear resistance. The study indicated that the critical normal load required to cause...
