Research advances in III-nitride semiconductor materials and device have led to an exponential increase in activity directed towards electronic and optoelectronic applications. There is also great scientific interest in this class of materials because they appear to form the first semiconductor system in which extended defects do not severely affect the optical properties of devices. The volume consists of chapters written by a number of leading researchers in nitride materials and device technology with the emphasis on the dopants incorporations, impurities identifications, defects engineering, defects characterization, ion implantation, irradiation-induced defects, residual stress, structural defects and phonon confinement. This unique volume provides a comprehensive review and introduction of defects and structural properties of GaN and related compounds for newcomers to the field and stimulus to further advances for experienced researchers. Given the current level of interest and research activity directed towards nitride materials and devices, the publication of the volume is particularly timely. Early pioneering work by Pankove and co-workers in the 1970s yielded a metal-insulator-semiconductor GaN light-emitting diode (LED), but the difficulty of producing p-type GaN precluded much further effort.
{{comment.content}}