Abstract:
This chapter gives a detailed account of group III nitride family, with special
focus on Gallium Nitride (GaN) in terM.S. of its fundamental properties and promising
applications. Literature background that highlights the challenges in GaN research,
limitation to their applications and how these challenges can be addressed in the various
nanostructures is discussed. This chapter concludes by presenting the scope and
organization of the thesis.
1.1 Group III-nitrides
(Al/Ga/In)-N compounds namely AlN, GaN and InN constitute the group III
nitride family. These wide bandgap materials posses several remarkable properties that
make them particularly attractive for reliable solid state device applications. They have
low dielectric constants with high thermal conductivity pathways, exhibit fairly high bond
strengths and very high melting temperatures [1-3]. The large bond strengths could
possibly inhibit dislocation motion and improve reliability in comparison to other II-VI
and III-V materials [1]. In addition, the group III-nitrides are resistant to chemical etching
and hence should allow GaN-based devices to be operated in harsh environments [4, 5].
These properties may lead to devices with superior reliability.
