Plasma-assisted electroepitaxy of GaN layers from the liquid Ga melt

Abstract

In this current paper we have studied a novel approach for the growth of GaN layers, namely plasma-assisted electroepitaxy (PAEE). In this method, we have combined the advantages of the plasma process for producing high concentrations of active N species in the Ga melt with the advantages of electroepitaxy in transferring the N species from the Ga surface to the growth interface, without spontaneous crystallisation on the surface or within the solution. We have designed and built a new growth chamber which allowed us to combine the plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy process with a liquid-phase electroepitaxy system. We have demonstrated that it is possible to grow continuous GaN layers by PAEE from liquid Ga melt at growth temperatures as low as ∼650°C, with low nitrogen overpressures of ∼3×10−5Torr.