Preface: Indium nitride and related alloys

Abstract

AbstractThe present proceedings, which comprise 25 articles in a joint issue of physica status solidi (a) and (c), contain recent advances in the properties and applications of indium based nitride alloys and heterostructures. The manuscripts have been submitted to the Symposium H of the 2011 European Materials Research Society (E‐MRS) Spring l Meeting, held in Nice on 9–13th May. The goal of the symposium was to highlight the developments in growth and characterization of InN material as well as in related alloys and heterostructures for device applications.Research on indium nitride and related alloys received a significant boost in Europe through the Marie Curie Initial Training Network (ITN) called “RAINBOW”, where 19 Ph.D. students and 8 post‐docs are trained in materials growth, characterization and related physics (EC funding 4.8 M€ for 2008–2012). This three‐days symposium was organized in the scope of the RAINBOW ITN. Such an organization proved to be highly successful: from the initially registered 80 contributors, the sessions were overcrowded all along with participants attracted from other symposia.The symposium discussed over 70 contributions, metal organic vapour phase epitaxy and molecular beam epitaxy of InN were covered, and special attention was given to the electronic, optical and structural quality of thin films. 16 invited speakers provided the current status of the research in this exciting field. In addition to invited papers, 45 oral presentations contributed to the sessions ranging from structural and optical properties to devices. Moreover, a poster session, which presented 21 reports, provided an important forum for detailed discussions. From the papers that were submitted for publication, 18 were highly rated, each by two reviewers and are published in physica status solidi (a). This issue is organised in three sections which reflect the topical sessions of the symposium. The first deals with the growth, optical and structural properties of indium nitride and related alloys, the second reports on the current theoretical investigations and the third section is devoted to the transport and point defects (© 2012 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)