We report the effect of periodic Si-delta-doping on the yellow luminescence (YL) and stress evolution in n-GaN epilayers. Photoluminescence measurements indicated that the YL component could be effectively suppressed with increasing dopant flow rate or decreasing period length. X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements revealed that the variations of dislocation density and carbon concentration are not the responsible mechanisms for the of YL emissions. The reduction of Ga vacancy related defects seems to be the probable reason for the YL suppression by Si-delta-doping. Moreover, Raman spectroscopy showed no obvious stress variation among these samples with different equivalent electron concentration. These observed features are entirely different from those reported for uniformly Si doped GaN. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.