Growth of bulk, polycrystalline gallium and indium nitride at sub-atmospheric pressures

Bulk, polycrystalline gallium nitride and indium nitride were crystallized at sub-atmospheric pressures by saturating the pure metals with nitrogen from a microwave electron cyclotron resonance source. Saturation of Ga/In melts with nitrogen led only to the crystallization of gallium nitride. The polycrystalline samples were wurtzitic. The gallium nitride was well faceted, with narrow Raman lineshapes, and showed near-band-edge and yellow band photo-luminescence at both 4K and 300K. The indium nitride was formed in smaller amounts, was less well faceted, and showed no photoluminescence.