Nonpolar m-plane GaN on patterned Si(112) substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Abstract

The concept of nonpolar (11¯00) m-plane GaN on Si substrates has been demonstrated by initiating growth on the vertical (1¯1¯1) sidewalls of patterned Si(112) substrates using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The Si(112) substrates were wet-etched to expose {111} planes using stripe-patterned SiNx masks oriented along the [1¯10] direction. Only the vertical Si(1¯1¯1) sidewalls were allowed to participate in GaN growth by masking other Si{111} planes using SiO2, which led to m-plane GaN films. Growth initiating on the Si(1¯1¯1) planes normal to the surface was allowed to advance laterally and also vertically toward full coalescence. InGaN double heterostructure active layers grown on these m-GaN templates on Si exhibited two times higher internal quantum efficiencies as compared to their c-plane counterparts at comparable carrier densities. These results demonstrate a promising method to obtain high-quality nonpolar m-GaN films on large area, inexpensive Si substrates.