A combination of atomic force microscopy and scanning capacitance microscopy was used to investigate the relationship between the surface morphology and the near-surface electrical properties of GaN films grown onc-axis sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. Local regions surrounding the surface termination of threading dislocations displayed a reduced change in capacitance with applied voltage relative to regions that contained no dislocations. Capacitance–voltage characteristics obtained from these regions indicated the presence of negative charge in the vicinity of dislocations. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.