The present invention provides a method for growing group-III nitride semiconductor
heteroepitaxial structures on a silicon (111) substrate by using a coincidently
matched multiple-layer buffer that can be grown on the Si(111) substrate.
The coincidently matched multiple-layer buffer comprises a single-crystal silicon
nitride (Si3N4) layer that is formed in a controlled manner
by introducing reactive nitrogen plasma or ammonia to the Si(111) substrate
at a suitably high temperature. Then, an AlN buffer layer or other group-III nitride
buffer layer is grown epitaxially on the single-crystal silicon nitride layer.
Thereafter, the GaN epitaxial layer or group-III semiconductor heteroepitaxial
structure can be grown on the coincidently matched multiple-layer buffer.