Selective area metalorganic molecular-beam epitaxy of GaN and the growth of luminescent microcolumns on Si/SiO2

We demonstrate the selective area growth of gallium nitride on patterned Si(111)/GaN/SiO2 wafers by metalorganic molecular beam epitaxy using triethyl gallium as a Ga source. We show that such selective area deposition may be used to grow isolated microcolumns of GaN with lateral dimensions of tens of nanometers on Si/SiO2 wafers. Via high resolution cathodoluminescence imaging we show that such microcolumn structures are highly luminescent inspite of a large surface to volume ratio, indicating that nonradiative recombination at free surfaces is not a significant issue in this system. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(99)00130-8].