Facile Au-assisted epitaxy of nearly strain-free GaN films on sapphire substrates

The nearly strain-free GaN films were epitaxially grown successfully on the Au-coated c-plane sapphire substrate by a convenient chemical vapor deposition approach. The growth of GaN single crystalline epitaxial films is a self-patterned process. The morphology, structure, compositions and optical properties of as-synthesized GaN materials were characterized through field-emission scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy mapping, Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The characterization results confirm that the epitaxial GaN films grown on Au-coated c-plane sapphire substrates have a single-crystalline and nearly strain-free structure, and exhibit strong UV emission. A possible growth mechanism of the GaN film is proposed: Au-assisted vapor deposition initiates the nucleation of the GaN seeds, and then these seeds grow into inclined inverted hexagonal GaN pyramids with a threefold azimuthal symmetry and vertical inverted hexagonal pyramids; and subsequently, the vertical inverted hexagonal pyramids expand laterally and annihilate the inclined inverted hexagonal pyramids; eventually these vertical pyramids coalesced to form nearly strain-free GaN films. This synthesis strategy provides a new idea for the simple self-patterned growth of nearly strain-free GaN epitaxial films on Au-coated sapphire substrates, and will promote broader applications in GaN-based electronic and optoelectronic devices.