Researchers from Technische Universitat Berlin have reported observing optically excited stimulated emission of cleaved c-GaN samples grown by molecular beam epitaxy. They report that the threshold intensity for excitation from c-GaN layers is lower than that for c-GaN grown using metallorganic chemical vapor deposition.

The hope is that the material may be useful for cleaved cavity blue-light-emitting laser diodes. Because c-GaN layers share a cleavage plane with GaAs, they are thought to be suitable for making laser cavities with cleaved facets. The group reported its findings in the April 5 issue of Applied Physics Letters.