We have demonstrated growing uniform and purely nitrogen polar semipolar (202̅1̅) GaN epilayers on 2 in. patterned sapphire substrates. The as-grown surface of (202̅1̅) GaN is composed of two stable facets: (101̅0) and (101̅1̅). A chemical mechanical polishing process was further used to planarize the surface with a final surface root-mean-square roughness of less than 1.5 nm over an area of 10 × 10 μm2. InGaN light-emitting diodes were grown on a polished (202̅1̅) GaN/sapphire template with an electroluminescence emission at around 490 nm. Our work exhibits the potential to produce high-quality nitrogen-polar semipolar GaN templates and optoelectronic devices on large-area sapphire substrates with economical feasibility.
Keywords: MOCVD; N-polar; light-emitting diodes; patterned sapphire substrate; selective area growth; semipolar GaN.