One-step lateral growth for reduction in defect density of a-plane GaN on r-sapphire substrate and its application in light emitters

Abstract

Low defect density a-plane GaN films were successfully grown by sidewall epitaxial lateral overgrowth (SELO) technology. Using this technology, a-plane GaN films with atomically flat surface were grown. The threading dislocation and stacking fault densities in the overgrown regions were lower than 10 6 cm -2 and 10 3 cm -1, respectively. We also fabricated and characterized a-plane-GaN-based LEDs using SELO technology. The light output power of a blue-green LED was shown to monotonically increase with decreasing of threading dislocation density. © 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA.