Progress and Prospect of Growth of Wide-Band-Gap Group III Nitrides

GaAs, InP, and their related compound semiconductors can be grown on native substrates, whereas such growth was not possible for group III nitride semiconductors in the 1970s and 1980s. Despite this drawback, researchers were able to use novel functions of group III nitride semiconductors by growing their thin films on nonnative substrates such as sapphire SiC and Si.