Conditions are investigated for the injection of arsenic into gallium nitri
de layers grown by metal-organic vapor-phase epitaxy. It is shown that the
deposition of GaAs on a GaN surface relieves stresses in the GaN layer. The
high-temperature overgrowth of a thin GaAs layer by a GaN layer causes As
atoms to diffuse into the GaN, produces a thick, homogeneously doped GaN:As
region, and creates a bright band in the photoluminescence spectrum with a
maximum at similar to 2.5 eV. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S10
63-7826(99)00707-3].