During the last few years the developments in the field of III–nitrides have been spectacular. High quality epitaxial layers can now be grown by MOVPE. Recently good quality epilayers have also been grown by MBE. Considerable work has been done on dislocations, strain, and critical thickness of GaN grown on different substrates. Splitting of valence band by crystal field and by spin-orbit interaction has been calculated and measured. The measured values agree with the calculated values. Effects of strain on the splitting of the valence band and on the optical properties have been studied in detail. Values of band offsets at the heterointerface between several pairs of different nitrides have been determined. Extensive work has been done on the optical and electrical properties. Near band-edge spectra have been measured over a wide range of temperatures. Free and bound exciton peaks have been resolved. Valence band structure has been determined using the PL spectra and compared with the theoretically calculated spectra. Strain and its effect on the optical properties of the III–nitride layers have been studied both theoretically and experimentally. Both n and p conductivity have been achieved. InGaN quantum wells with GaN and AlGaN barriers and cladding layers have been investigated. PL of the quantum wells is affected by confinement effects, band filling, quantum confined Stark effect, and strain. This work has led to the fabrication of advanced optoelectronic and electronic devices. The light-emitting decodes emitting in the blue and green regions of the spectrum have been commercialized. The work leading to these developments is reviewed in this article. The device processing methods and actual devices are not discussed.

We have studied in detail the physical phenomena involved in the interaction of high-powered nanosecond excimer-laser pulses with bulk targets resulting in evaporation, plasma formation, and subsequent deposition of thin films. A theoretical model for simulating these laser-plasma–solid interactions has been developed. In this model, the laser-generated plasma is treated as an ideal gas at high pressure and temperature, which is initially confined in small dimensions, and is suddenly allowed to expand in vacuum. The three-dimensional expansion of this plasma gives rise to the characteristic spatial thickness and compositional variations observed in laser-deposited thin films of multicomponent systems. The forward-directed nature of the laser evaporation process has been found to result from anisotropic expansion velocities of the atomic species which are controlled by the dimensions of the expanding plasma.

We present a unified model for thin film epitaxy where single crystal films with small and large lattice misfits are grown by domain matching epitaxy (DME). The DME involves matching of lattice planes between the film and the substrate having similar crystal symmetry. In this framework, the conventional lattice matching epitaxy becomes a special case where a matching of lattice constants or the same planes is involved with a small misfit of less than 7%–8%. In large lattice mismatch systems, we show that epitaxial growth of thin films is possible by matching of domains where integral multiples of major lattice planes match across the interface. We illustrate this concept with atomic-level details in the TiN/Si(100) with 3/4 matching, the AlN/Si(100)with 4/5 matching, and the $\mathrm{ZnO}\mathrm{/\alpha -}{\mathrm{Al}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_3\text{(0001)}$ with 6/7 matching of major planes across the film/substrate interface. By varying the domain size, which is equal to intregral multiple of lattice planes, in a periodic fashion, it is possible to accommodate additional misfit beyond perfect domain matching. Thus, we can potentially design epitaxial growth of films with any lattice misfit on a given substrate with atomically clean surfaces. In situ x-ray diffraction studies on initial stages of growth of ZnO films on sapphire correctly identify a compressive stress and a rapid relaxation within 1 to 2 monolayers, consistent with the DME framework and the fact that the critical thickness is less than 1 monolayer. DME examples ranging from the Ge–Si/Si(100) system with 49/50 matching (2% strain) to metal/Si systems with 1/2 matching (50% strain) are tabulated, strategies for growing strain-free films by engineering the misfit to be confined near the interface are presented, and the potential for epitaxial growth of films with any lattice misfit on a given substrate with atomically clean surfaces is discussed.