GaN avalanche photodiodes grown on m-plane freestanding GaN substrate

M-plane GaN avalanche p-i-n photodiodes on low dislocation density freestanding m-plane GaN substrates were realized using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. High quality homoepitaxial m-plane GaN layers were developed; the root-mean-square surface roughness was less than 1 Å and the full-width-at-half-maximum value of the x-ray rocking curve for 101̄0 diffraction of m-plane GaN epilayer was 32 arcsec. High quality material led to a low reverse-bias dark current of 8.11 pA for 225 m2 mesa photodetectors prior to avalanche breakdown, with the maximum multiplication gain reaching about 8000. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.3432408