Surface kinetics in halide vapor phase epitaxial growth of GaN layers on GaN (0001) freestanding substrates

• A surface kinetic model of HVPE-GaN (0001) layers is developed using BCF theory. • The hillock density is controlled by the supersaturation and/or the off-cut angle. • The critical off-cut angle is controlled by the supersaturation. The effects of halide vapor phase epitaxial (HVPE) growth conditions such as input V/III ratio and substrate off-cut angle on the surface morphology of n-type GaN layers grown on GaN (0001) freestanding substrates were investigated to develop a model for growing smooth surfaces. The spiral hillock density increased with increasing input V/III ratio and/or decreasing off-cut angle. The critical off-cut angle between the spiral growth and the step-flow growth depended on the vapor supersaturation calculated by thermodynamic analysis. To understand the transition of the growth mode, we proposed a Burton–Cabrera–Frank-theory-based model considering the effect of spiral growth, which was utilized to explain the obtained experimental results. The developed growth model can be effective for predicting the HVPE growth mode between the spiral growth and the step-flow growth.