Nanoheteroepitaxial growth of GaN on Si by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy

Nanoheteroepitaxy has recently been proposed as a technique for significant ly extending the thickness of pseudomorphic growth in mismatched heterostru ctures. This letter reports the experimental application of nanoheteroepita xy for the growth of GaN on patterned < 111 > oriented silicon-on-insulator substrates by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy. Transmission electron mi croscopy reveals that the defect concentration decays rapidly away from the heterointerface as predicted by nanoheteroepitaxy theory. The melting poin t of the nanoscale islands is found to be significantly reduced, enhancing substrate compliance and further reducing the strain energy in the GaN epit axial layer. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(00)02607-3 ].