Microscopic lateral overgrowth by physical vapour transport of GaN on self‐organized diamond‐like carbon masks

Techniques to reduce dislocation densities in GaN grown on foreign substrates are an interesting alternative to bulk growth as long as efficient bulk crystals growth techniques are not available. In this paper a new approach for epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) of GaN through an in‐situ grown self‐organized amorphous (diamond‐like) carbon mask is demonstrated. The ELO was done for the first time by physical vapour transport of Ga, using NH₃ as a nitrogen source. The overgrowth results in a decrease of the threading dislocation density by at least one order of magnitude compared to that of the MOCVD GaN/sapphire templates. (© 2009 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)