Polarity-inverted lateral overgrowth and selective wet-etching and regrowth (PILOSWER) of GaN.

On an SiO2-patterned c-plane sapphire substrate, GaN domains were grown with their polarity controlled in accordance with the pattern. While N-polar GaN was grown on hexagonally arranged circular openings, Ga-polar GaN was laterally overgrown on mask regions due to polarity inversion occurring at the boundary of the circular openings. After etching of N-polar GaN on the circular openings by H3PO4, this template was coated with 40-nm Si by sputtering and was slightly etched by KOH. After slight etching, a thin layer of Si left on the circular openings of sapphire,but not on GaN, was oxidized during thermal annealing and served as a dielectric mask during subsequent regrowth. Thus, the subsequent growth of GaN was made only on the existing Ga-polar GaN domains, not on the circular openings of the sapphire substrate. Transmission electron microscopy analysis revealed no sign of threading dislocations in this film. This approach may help fabricating an unholed and merged GaN film physically attached to but epitaxially separated from the SiO2-patterned sapphire.

The determining factor of a preferred orientation of GaN domains grown on m-plane sapphire substrates.

Epitaxial lateral overgrowth in tandem with the first-principles calculation was employed to investigate the determining factor of a preferred orientation of GaN on SiO2-patterned m-plane sapphire substrates. We found that the (1100)-orientation is favored over the (1103)-orientation in the region with a small filling factor of SiO2, while the latter orientation becomes preferred in the region with a large filling factor. This result suggests that the effective concentration determines the preferred orientation of GaN: the (1100)- and (1103)-orientations preferred at their low and high concentrations, respectively. Our computational study revealed that at a low coverage of Ga and N atoms, the local atomic arrangement resembles that on the (1103) surface, although the (1100) surface is more stable at their full coverage. Such a (1103)-like atomic configuration crosses over to the local structure resembling that on the (1100) surface as the coverage increases. Based on results, we determined that high effective concentration of Ga and N sources expedites the growth of the (1103)-orientation while keeping from transition to the (1100)-orientation. At low effective concentration, on the other hand, there is a sufficient time for the added Ga and N sources to rearrange the initial (1103)-like orientation to form the (1100)-orientation.

Analysis of diffuse reflectivity of a highly disordered GaN nanostructure as an antireflection coating.

A highly disordered GaN nanostructure was grown by using hydride vapor phase epitaxy on an Si(100) substrate, and its diffuse reflectivity was measured in the 200-1200 nm spectral range by using an integrating sphere. A modified multiple-scattering-based model successfully explained the spectral distribution of diffuse reflectivity of this highly disordered GaN nanostructure.

A crystallographic investigation of GaN nanostructures by reciprocal space mapping in a grazing incidence geometry.

Reciprocal space mapping with a two-dimensional (2D) area detector in a grazing incidence geometry was applied to determine crystallographic orientations of GaN nanostructures epitaxially grown on a sapphire substrate. By using both unprojected and projected reciprocal space mapping with a proper coordinate transformation, the crystallographic orientations of GaN nanostructures with respect to that of a substrate were unambiguously determined. In particular, the legs of multipods in the wurtzite phase were found to preferentially nucleate on the sides of tetrahedral cores in the zinc blende phase.