Arrays of pivoted GaN microdisks have been fabricated on a GaN / Si material by a combination of dry and wet etching. The Si material beneath the GaN microdisks is removed by wet etching, leaving behind a fine pillar to support the disks. Raman spectroscopy reveals substantial strain relaxation in these structures. Resonant modes, corresponding to whispering gallery modes, are observed in the photoluminescence spectra. Stimulated emission is achieved at higher optical pumping intensities.

Nanopore arrays with pore diameters of approximately 75nm were fabricated in GaN films by inductively coupled plasma etching using anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) films as etch masks. Nanoporous AAO films were formed on the GaN surface by evaporating an Al film onto a GaN epilayer and subsequently anodizing the aluminum. To minimize plasma-induced damage, the template was exposed to CF4-based plasma conditions. Scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that the diameter and the periodicity of the nanopores in the GaN were directly transferred from the original anodic alumina template. The pore diameter in the AAO film can be easily controlled by tuning the anodization conditions. Atomic force microscopy, photoluminescence, and micro-Raman techniques were employed to assess the etched GaN nanopore surface. This cost-effective, nonlithographic method to produce nano-patterned GaN templates is expected to be useful for growth and fabrication of nitride-based nanostructures and photonic band gap materials.

We report the growth of high-quality GaN epilayers on an ordered nanoporous GaN template by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The nanopores in GaN template were created by inductively coupled plasma etching using anodic aluminum oxide film as an etch mask. The average pore diameter and interpore distance is about 65 and 110nm, respectively. Subsequent overgrowth of GaN first begins at the GaN crystallite surface between the pores, and then air-bridge-mediated lateral overgrowth leads to the formation of the continuous layer. Microphotoluminescence and micro-Raman measurements show improved optical properties and significant strain relaxation in the overgrown layer when compared to GaN layer of same thickness simultaneously grown on sapphire without any template. Similar to conventional epitaxial lateral overgrown GaN, such overgrown GaN on a nanopatterned surface would also serve as a template for the growth of ultraviolet-visible light-emitting III-nitride devices.

GaN nanopillar arrays have been fabricated by inductively coupled plasma etching of GaN films using anodic aluminum oxide film as an etch mask. The average diameter and length of these pillars are 60–65nm and 350–400nm, respectively. Ultraviolet microphotoluminescence measurements indicate high photoluminescence intensity and stress relaxation in these GaN nanopillars as compared to the starting epitaxial GaN films. Evidence of good crystalline quality is also observed by micro-Raman measurements, wherein a redshift of the E2high mode from GaN nanopillars suggests partial relaxation of the compressive strain. In addition, breakdown of the polarization selection rules led to the appearance of symmetry-forbidden and quasipolar modes.

Graded InGaN buffers were employed to relax the strain arising from the lattice and thermal mismatch in GaN/InGaN epilayers grown on sapphire. An enhanced strain relaxation was observed in GaN grown on a stack of five InGaN layers, each 200 nm thick with the In content increased in each layer, and with an intermediate thin GaN layer, 10 nm thick inserted between the InGaN layers, as compared to the conventional two-step growth of GaN epilayer on sapphire. The function of the intermediate layer is to progressively relax the strain that builds up in the InGaN layer. If the InGaN layers were graded too rapidly, more dislocations will be generated. This increases the probability of the dislocations getting entangled, thereby impeding the motion of the dislocations to relax the strain in the InGaN layer. The optimum growth conditions of the intermediate layer play a major role in promoting the suppression and filling of the V-pits in the GaN cap layer, and were empirically found to be a thin 10-nm GaN layer grown at 750 °C and annealed at 1000 °C.

This work reports on the high-frequency capacitance–voltage (C–V) measurements of metal-insulator-semiconductor structures fabricated by depositing SiO2 film on an n-type GaN epitaxial layer. The SiO2 film was grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at 310 °C, and the GaN layer was grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on a sapphire substrate. High-frequency C–V measurements have been carried out in darkness with different bias ranges and sweep rates. With a bias between ±20 V, the small flatband shift and the very small hysteresis indicate that the interface trap concentration in the sample is low, and the interface state density is 2.1×1011 eV−1 cm−2. However, a pronounced increase of hysteresis with an extended bias range was observed. When the bias is over ±50 V, the increase of the hysteresis is much larger, indicating the nonuniform distribution of different slow deep states in the structure. The extracted interface state density is in the range of 1012 eV−1 cm−2.

GaN metal–semiconductor–metal photoconductive detectors have been fabricated on Si(111) substrates. The GaN epitaxial layers were grown on Si substrates by means of metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition. These detectors exhibited a sharp cutoff at the wavelength of 363 nm and a high responsivity at a wavelength from 360 to 250 nm. A maximum responsivity of 6.9 A/W was achieved at 357 nm with a 5 V bias. The relationship between the responsivity and the bias voltage was measured. The responsivity saturated when the bias voltage reached 5 V. The response time of 4.8 ms was determined by the measurements of photocurrent versus modulation frequency.

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