Metal nitride and method for producing metal nitride

Abstract

The invention provides a process for producing efficiently high-quality metal nitrides (such as gallium nitride) which little contain impurities, particularly, a process for the production of metal nitrides which is characterized by using a container made of a nonoxide material. The employment of a nonoxide material as the material of the container to come into contact with a starting metal or a product metal nitride makes it possible to inhibit the reaction of the container with the starting metal or the product metal nitride, the adhesion of the metal or the metal nitride to the container, and the contamination of the metal nitride with oxygen resulting from the material of the container, thus permitting the production of highly crystalline high-quality metal nitrides. Further, the feeding of a nitrogen source gas in an amount larger than a certain level at a flow velocity higher than a certain level makes it possible to convert a starting metal into a nitride at an extremely high degree of conversion, thus enabling the production of a metal nitride having a theoretical metal / nitrogen ratio in a high yield with little unreacted starting metal. The obtained metal nitrides are little contaminated with oxygen and have theoretical metal / nitrogen ratios, thus being useful as the raw material for bulk crystal growth.

Description

technical field [0001] This invention relates to metal nitrides. Specifically, the present invention relates to nitrides of Group IIIA metal elements of the periodic table represented by gallium nitride and a method for producing the metal nitrides. Background technique [0002] Gallium Nitride (GaN) can be used as a substance suitable for electronic devices such as light emitting diodes or laser diodes. The most common method for producing gallium nitride crystals is a method of performing vapor phase epitaxy growth by MOCVD (Metal Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition) on a substrate such as sapphire or silicon carbide. However, since this method uses heteroepitaxial growth in which the lattice constant and thermal expansion coefficient are different between the substrate and GaN, there is a problem that the resulting GaN is prone to lattice defects, and it is difficult to obtain applicable High quality for blue laser etc. [0003] Therefore, in recent years, there has been...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, since this method uses heteroepitaxial growth in which the lattice constant and thermal expansion coefficient are different between the substrate and GaN, there is a problem that the resulting GaN is prone to lattice defects, and it is difficult to obtain applicable High quality for blue laser etc.

Also, in this case, a considerable amount of metal components including Ga is contained, so that the purity of h-GaN decreases