Pendeoepitaxy of gallium nitride thin films

Pendeoepitaxy, a form of selective lateral growth of GaN thin films has been developed using GaN/AlN/6H-SiC(0001) substrates and produced by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy. Selective lateral growth is forced to initiate from the (11(2) over bar 0) GaN sidewalls of etched GaN seed forms by incorporating a silicon nitride seed mask and employing the SiC substrate as a pseudomask. Coalescence over and between the seed forms was achieved. Transmission electron microscopy revealed that all vertically threading defects stemming from the GaN/AlN and AlN/SiC interfaces are contained within the seed forms and a substantial reduction in the dislocation density of the laterally grown GaN. Atomic force microscopy analysis of the (11(2) over bar 0) face of discrete pendeoepitaxial structures revealed a root mean square roughness of 0.98 Angstrom. The pendeoepitaxial layer photoluminescence band edge emission peak was observed to be 3.454 eV and is blueshifted by 12 meV as compared to the GaN seed layer. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)03128-9].