The use of plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy to produce nitride blue-violet laser diodes was reviewed. Two aspects were given particular attention: epitaxial growth under metal-rich conditions which permitted effective lateral diffusion of N adatoms at low growth temperatures, and the role of threading dislocations in destabilizing the growth front. Low-temperature growth by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on dislocation-free GaN substrates was instrumental in achieving high performance of optoelectronic structures. The inherent to this process capability of sustaining 2-dimensional step-flow growth mode (with straight and parallel atomic steps) at low growth temperatures permitted the growth of strained multilayer structures with no compositional fluctuations and with flat interfaces.

Role of Dislocation-Free GaN Substrates in the Growth of Indium Containing Optoelectronic Structures by Plasma-Assisted MBE. C.Skierbiszewski, M.Siekacz, P.Perlin, A.Feduniewicz-Żmuda, G.Cywiński, I.Grzegory, M.Leszczyński, Z.R.Wasilewski, S.Porowski: Journal of Crystal Growth, 2007, 305[2], 346-54