According to the present disclosure, techniques related to processing of materials for growth of crystals are provided. More particularly, the present disclosure provides apparatus and methods for heating of seed crystals suitable for use in conjunction with a high-pressure vessel for crystal growth of a material having a retrograde solubility in a supercritical fluid, including crystal growth of a group III metal nitride crystal by an ammonobasic or ammonoacidic technique, but there can be others. In other embodiments, the present disclosure provides methods suitable for synthesis of crystalline nitride materials, but it would be recognized that other crystals and materials can also be processed. Such crystals and materials include, but are not limited to, GaN, AlN, InN, InGaN, AlGaN, and AlInGaN, and others for manufacture of bulk or patterned substrates. Such bulk or patterned substrates can be used for a variety of applications including optoelectronic devices, lasers, light emitting diodes, solar cells, photoelectrochemical water splitting and hydrogen generation, photodetectors, integrated circuits, and transistors, among other devices.

According to the present disclosure, techniques related to processing of materials for growth of crystals are provided. More particularly, the present disclosure provides apparatus and methods for heating of seed crystals suitable for use in conjunction with a high-pressure vessel for crystal growth of a material having a retrograde solubility in a supercritical fluid, including crystal growth of a group III metal nitride crystal by an ammonobasic or ammonoacidic technique, but there can be others. In other embodiments, the present disclosure provides methods suitable for synthesis of crystalline nitride materials, but it would be recognized that other crystals and materials can also be processed. Such crystals and materials include, but are not limited to, GaN, AlN, InN, InGaN, AlGaN, and AlInGaN, and others for manufacture of bulk or patterned substrates. Such bulk or patterned substrates can be used for a variety of applications including optoelectronic devices, lasers, light emitting diodes, solar cells, photoelectrochemical water splitting and hydrogen generation, photodetectors, integrated circuits, and transistors, among other devices.

A method for growing a crystalline composition, the first crystalline composition may include gallium and nitrogen. The crystalline composition may have an infrared absorption peak at about 3175 cm.sup.1, with an absorbance per unit thickness of greater than about 0.01 cm.sup.1. In one embodiment, the composition ay have an amount of oxygen present in a concentration of less than about 310.sup.18 per cubic centimeter, and may be free of two-dimensional planar boundary defects in a determined volume of the first crystalline composition.

GaN wafers and bulk crystal have dislocation density approximately 1/10 of dislocation density of seed used to form the bulk crystal and wafers. Masks are formed selectively on GaN seed dislocations, and new GaN grown on the seed has fewer dislocations and often 1/10 or less of dislocations present in seed.

BN nanosheets are prepared by a method comprising heating to a temperature of at least 500 C., a mixture comprising: (1) an alkali borohydride, and (2) an ammonium salt. NaN.sub.3 may be included to increase the yield. No catalyst is required, and the product produced contains less than 0.1 atomic percent metal impurities.

The present invention discloses an electronic device formed of a group III nitride. In one embodiment, a substrate is fabricated by the ammonothermal method and a drift layer is fabricated by hydride vapor phase epitaxy. After etching a trench, p-type contact pads are made by pulsed laser deposition followed by n-type contact pads by pulsed laser deposition. The bandgap of the p-type contact pad is designed larger than that of the drift layer. Upon forward bias between p-type contact pads (gate) and n-type contact pads (source), holes and electrons are injected into the drift layer from the p-type contact pads and n-type contact pads. Injected electrons drift to the backside of the substrate (drain).

An object of the present invention is to provide a crystal of a nitride of a Group-13 metal on the Periodic Table which has good crystallinity and has no crystal strain, and to provide a production method for the crystal. The crystal of a nitride of a Group-13 metal on the Periodic Table of the present invention, comprises oxygen atom and hydrogen atom in the crystal and has a ratio of a hydrogen concentration to an oxygen concentration therein of from 0.5 to 4.5.

A method for growing a GaN crystal suitable as a material of GaN substrates including C-plane GaN substrates includes: a first step of preparing a GaN seed having a nitrogen polar surface; a second step of arranging a pattern mask on the nitrogen polar surface of the GaN seed, the pattern mask being provided with a periodical opening pattern comprising linear openings and including intersections, the pattern mask being arranged such that longitudinal directions of at least part of the linear openings are within 3 from a direction of an intersection line between the nitrogen polar surface and an M-plane; and a third step of ammonothermally growing a GaN crystal through the pattern mask such that a gap is formed between the GaN crystal and the pattern mask.

A conductive C-plane GaN substrate has a resistivity of 2?10.sup.?2 ?.Math.cm or less or an n-type carrier concentration of 1?10.sup.18 cm.sup.?3 or more at room temperature. At least one virtual line segment with a length of 40 mm can be drawn at least on one main surface of the substrate. The line segment satisfies at least one of the following conditions (A1) and (B1): (A1) when an XRC of (004) reflection is measured at 1 mm intervals on the line segment, a maximum value of XRC-FWHMs across all measurement points is less than 30 arcsec; and (B1) when an XRC of the (004) reflection is measured at 1 mm intervals on the line segment, a difference between maximum and minimum values of XRC peak angles across all the measurement points is less than 0.2?.

The present invention provides a method of growing an ingot of group III nitride. Group III nitride crystals such as GaN are grown by the ammonothermal method on both sides of a seed to form an ingot and the ingot is sliced into wafers. The wafer including the first-generation seed is sliced thicker than the other wafers so that the wafer including the first-generation seed does not break. The wafer including the first-generation seed crystal can be used as a seed for the next ammonothermal growth.