Effects of Al additives on growth of GaN polycrystals by the Na flux method

Abstract In this study, we investigated the growth of GaN polycrystals using the Al-added Na flux method. We studied the effects of Al on accelerating the nucleation and purity of GaN polycrystals. The yields of GaN crystals grown in Al-added Na flux were dramatically increased from those in Al-free Na flux, and the polycrystals grown by the Al-added Na flux method were highly transparent. As observed in secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements, the Al content of the polycrystals was below the detection limit of 3 × 1016 atoms/cm3. From these results, the Al-added Na flux method is found to be appropriate for fabricating a large amount of GaN polycrystals without deteriorating the crystal quality.