Effect of nanoporous GaN templates with different pore diameters on the subsequent thick GaN layers by HVPE

A set of GaN films were overgrown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) on nanoporous GaN templates with different pore diameters. These samples have various properties as seen from the measurements of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence (PL). Cross-sectional observations under a scanning electron microscopy (SEM) reveal that the overgrowth mechanism and process are strongly related to the dimension of nanopores, indicating that an optimum diameter exists for the properties of subsequent HVPE–GaN layers. When the diameters of nanopores are less than the optimum value, the pores on top of GaN templates can be left, and the properties of HVPE–GaN films show significant improvement. In contrast, the pores are almost stuffed with HVPE–GaN films, which obviously limit the improvement degree of HVPE–GaN films.