Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
A hybrid Pulsed Laser Deposition system was developed to perform epitaxial growth of GaN on sapphire(0001). This system combines the laser ablation of a cooled Ga target with a well-characterized atomic nitrogen source. Taking advantage of the flexibility of this unique deposition system, high quality GaN thin films were deposited by optimizing both the laser intensity and the nitrogen flux. To date, our best GaN films show a FWHM of the GaN(0002) rocking curve peak equal to 480 arcsec. This result has been obtained at a laser intensity of I = 7×107 W/cm2, a substrate temperature of 800°C and under Ga-rich growth conditions.