Epitaxial (1120) a-plane GaN films were grown on a (1102) R-plane sapphire substrate with photoresist (PR) masks using metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The PR mask with striped patterns was prepared using an ex-situ lithography process, whereas carbonization and heat treatment of the PR mask were carried out using an in-situ MOCVD. The heat treatment of the PR mask was continuously conducted in ambient H2/NH3 mixture gas at 1140℃ after carbonization by the pyrolysis in ambient H2 at 1100℃. As the time of the heat treatment progressed, the striped patterns of the carbonized PR mask shrank. The heat treatment of the carbonized PR mask facilitated epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) of a-plane GaN films without carbon contamination on the R-plane sapphire substrate. Thhe surface morphology of a-plane GaN films was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The structural characteristics of a-plane GaN films on an R-plane sapphire substrate were evaluated by ω-2θ high-resolution X-ray diffraction. The a-plane GaN films were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) to determine carbon contamination from carbonized PR masks in the GaN film bulk. After Ar+ ion etching, XPS spectra indicated that carbon contamination exists only in the surface region. Finally, the heat treatment of carbonized PR masks was used to grow high-quality a-plane GaN films without carbon contamination. This approach showed the promising potential of the ELO process by using a PR mask.

Recently, the use of an aluminum nitride(AlN) buffer layer has been actively studied for fabricating a high quality gallium nitride(GaN) template for high efficiency Light Emitting Diode(LED) production. We confirmed that AlN deposition after N2 plasma treatment of the substrate has a positive influence on GaN epitaxial growth. In this study, N2 plasma treatment was performed on a commercial patterned sapphire substrate by RF magnetron sputtering equipment. GaN was grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD). The surface treated with N2 plasma was analyzed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy(XPS) to determine the binding energy. The XPS results indicated the surface was changed from Al2O3 to AlN and AlON, and we confirmed that the thickness of the pretreated layer was about 1 nm using high resolution transmission electron microscopy(HR-TEM). The AlN buffer layer deposited on the grown pretreated layer had lower crystallinity than the as-treated PSS. Therefore, the surface N2 plasma treatment on PSS resulted in a reduction in the crystallinity of the AlN buffer layer, which can improve the epitaxial growth quality of the GaN template.