A disc-like GaN substrate is a substrate produced by a tiling method and having an angel between the normal line and m-axis on the main surface of the substrate of 0 to 20 inclusive and a diameter of 45 to 55 mm, to 4 or less. In a preferred embodiment, a disc-like GaN substrate has a first main surface and a second main surface that is opposite to the first main surface, and which has an angle between the normal line and m-axis on the first main surface of 0 to 20 inclusive and a diameter of 45 mm or more. The disc-like GaN substrate comprises at least four crystalline regions each being exposed to both of the first main surface and the second main surface, wherein the four crystalline regions are arranged in line along the direction of the orthogonal projection of c-axis on the first main surface.

The present invention provides a crystal of a monovalent cation salt of 3-hydroxyisovaleric acid (hereinafter, referred to as HMB), which is excellent in solubility and easy to handle, and a process for producing the crystal. A crystal of a monovalent cation salt of HMB is precipitated in an aqueous HMB solution containing a monovalent cation-containing compound and having a pH of 4.0 to 9.0, and the crystal of a monovalent cation salt of HMB is thereafter collected from the aqueous solution.

Gallium-containing nitride crystals are disclosed, comprising: a top surface having a crystallographic orientation within about 5 degrees of a plane selected from a (0001) +c-plane and a (000-1) c-plane; a substantially wurtzite structure; n-type electronic properties; an impurity concentration of hydrogen greater than about 510.sup.17 cm.sup.3; an impurity concentration of oxygen between about 210.sup.17 cm.sup.3 and about 110.sup.20 cm.sup.3; an [H]/[O] ratio of at least 0.3; an impurity concentration of at least one of Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs, Ca, F, and CI greater than about 110.sup.16 cm.sup.3; a compensation ratio between about 1.0 and about 4.0; an absorbance per unit thickness of at least 0.01 cm.sup.1 at wavenumbers of approximately 3175 cm.sup.1, 3164 cm.sup.1, and 3150 cm.sup.1; and wherein, at wavenumbers between about 3200 cm.sup.1 and about 3400 cm.sup.1 and between about 3075 cm.sup.1 and about 3125 cm.sup.1, said gallium-containing nitride crystal is essentially free of infrared absorption peaks having an absorbance per unit thickness greater than 10% of the absorbance per unit thickness at 3175 cm.sup.1.

A process of preparing polycrystalline group III nitride chunks comprising the steps of (a) placing a group III metal inside a source chamber; (b) flowing a halogen-containing gas over the group III metal to form a group III metal halide; (c) contacting the group III metal halide with a nitrogen-containing gas in a deposition chamber containing a foil, the foil comprising at least one of Mo, W, Ta, Pd, Pt, Ir, or Re; (d) forming a polycrystalline group III nitride layer on the foil within the deposition chamber; (e) removing the polycrystalline group III nitride layer from the foil; and (f) comminuting the polycrystalline group III nitride layer to form the polycrystalline group III nitride chunks, wherein the removing and the comminuting are performed in any order or simultaneously.

A high-quality nitride crystal can be produced efficiently by charging a nitride crystal starting material that contains tertiary particles having a maximum diameter of from 1 to 120 mm and formed through aggregation of secondary particles having a maximum diameter of from 100 to 1000 m, in the starting material charging region of a reactor, followed by crystal growth in the presence of a solvent in a supercritical state and/or a subcritical state in the reactor, wherein the nitride crystal starting material is charged in the starting material charging region in a bulk density of from 0.7 to 4.5 g/cm.sup.3 for the intended crystal growth.

Methods for large-scale manufacturing of semipolar gallium nitride boules are disclosed. The disclosed methods comprise suspending large-area single crystal seed plates in a rack, placing the rack in a large diameter autoclave or internally-heated high pressure apparatus along with ammonia and a mineralizer, and growing crystals ammonothermally. A bi-faceted growth morphology may be maintained to facilitate fabrication of large area semipolar wafers without growing thick boules.

Techniques for processing materials in supercritical fluids including processing in a capsule disposed within a high-pressure apparatus enclosure are disclosed. The disclosed techniques are useful for growing crystals of GaN, AlN, InN, and their alloys, including InGaN, AlGaN, and AlInGaN for the manufacture of bulk or patterned substrates, which in turn can be used to make optoelectronic devices, lasers, light emitting diodes, solar cells, photoelectrochemical water splitting and hydrogen generation devices, photodetectors, integrated circuits, and transistors.

The present invention relates to a pressure container for crystal production having excellent corrosion-resistance. This pressure container produces crystals within the container using a seed crystal, a mineralizer, a raw material, and ammonia in a super critical state and/or a sub-critical state as a solvent. The pressure container has Ag present over the entire surface of at least the exposed inner surface thereof. The Ag can be disposed by one or a combination of two or more among, for instance, Ag lining, Ag welding, and Ag plating. The mineralizer is preferably a fluorine mineralizer containing no halogen atoms other than fluorine.

A method for producing a GaN crystal is provided. In the method, front surfaces of a plurality of tiling GaN seeds closely arranged side by side on a flat surface of a plate are planarized. An aggregated seed is formed by arranging the tiling GaN seeds closely side by side on a susceptor of an HVPE apparatus in the same arrangement as when fixed on the plate, with the front planarized surfaces facing upward. A bulk GaN crystal is grown epitaxially on the aggregated seed by an HVPE method.

An object is to provide a nonpolar or semipolar GaN substrate having improved size and crystal quality. A self-standing GaN substrate has an angle between the normal of the principal surface and an m-axis of 0 degrees or more and 20 degrees or less, wherein: the size of the projected image in a c-axis direction when the principal surface is vertically projected on an M-plane is 10 mm or more; and when an a-axis length is measured on an intersection line between the principal surface and an A-plane, a low distortion section with a section length of 6 mm or more and with an a-axis length variation within the section of 10.010.sup.5 or less is observed.