Strain Dependence of Formation Mechanism of Growth Layer in Molecular Beam Epitaxy of Gallium Nitride

In this study, the epitaxial growth of gallium nitride (GaN) on a GaN substrate is investigated by a molecular dynamics (MD) method. Furthermore the difference between the surface diffusion of atoms of a strained substrate and an unstrained substrate is examined From the results of this examination, it is found that the diffusion characteristic in the unstrained case is higher than that in the strained case Therefore in the unstrained case, GaN grows layer-by-layer. On the other hand in the strained case multiple layers of GaN grow simultaneously. Furthermore, it is also found that the wurtzite structure of GaN differs between the strained case and the unstrained case. (C) The Japan Society of Applied Physics