Priority Programme of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft: Group III-nitrides and Their Heterostructures - Growth, Characterization and Applications

physica status solidi (c) -- conferences and critical reviews publishes conference proceedings, ranging from large international meetings to specialized topical workshops as well as collections of topical reviews on various areas of current solid state physics research. This Special Issue contains a series of Review Articles on several aspects of the epitaxy, materials science, and applications of group--III nitride films and heterostructures, written by participants of the Priority Programme (SPP) 1032 of the German Research Foundation (DFG). Main topics included are deposition and structure, electronic and optical properties as well as devices and device issues.

Table of Contents:
Preface. Deposition and structural properties. Growth of GaN quasi--substrates by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (Wei Zhang and B.K. Meyer). Metalorganic chemical vapor phase epitaxy of gallium--nitride on silicon (A. Dadgar, et al.). Molecular beam epitaxy of cubic III--nitrides on GaAs substrates (D.J. As, et al.). Freestanding GaN--substrates and devices (Claudio R. Miskys, et al.). Surfactants and antisurfactants on group--III--nitride surfaces (J. Neugebauer). Indium distribution in epitaxially grown InGaN layers analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (D. Gerthsen, et al.). A theoretical investigation of dislocations in cubic and hexagonal gallium nitride (A.T. Blumenau, et al.). Lattice dynamics in GaN and AIN probed with first--and second--order Raman spectroscopy (U. Haboeck, et al.). Electronic and optical properties. Electronic and vibrational properties of group--III nitrides: Ab initio studies (F. Bechstedt, et al.). Phonons and free--carrier properties of binary, ternary, and quaternary group--III nitride layers measured by Infrared Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (A. Kasic, et al.). Mg in GaN: the structure of the acceptor and the electrical activity (H. Alves, et al.). Local vibrational modes and compensation effects in Mg--doped GaN (A. Hoffmann, et al.). Optical micro--characterization of group--III--nitrides: correlation of structural, electronic and optical properties (J. Christen, et al.). Optical properties of nitride heterostructures (Andreas Hangleiter). The origin of the PL photoluminescence Stokes shift in ternary group--III nitrides: field effects and localization (M. Strassburg, et al.). Devices and device issues. GaN based laser diodes -- epitaxial growth and device fabrication (T. Bottcher, et al.). Optical gain, gain saturation, and waveguiding in group III--nitride heterostructures (M. Rowe, et al.). Electronics and sensors based on pyroelectric AlGaN/GaN heterostructures -- Part B: Sensor applications (M. Eickhoff, et al.). Influence of polarization of the properties of GaN based FET structures (M. Neuburger, et al.). Gallium--nitride--based devices on silicon (A, Dadgar, et al.).