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

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 similar to 650 degrees C, with low nitrogen overpressures of similar to 3 x 10(-5) Torr. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.