Patent ID: 8796055

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a Group III nitride semiconductor light-emitting element in which a single crystalline Group III nitride semiconductor layer is formed on a substrate formed from sapphire, and an LED structure is formed on the Group III nitride semiconductor layer, the method comprising: a substrate-processing process of periodically forming a plurality of convex portions having a base width d 1 and a height h in a flat surface, which is formed from a (0001) C-plane, of the substrate to form a main surface including the flat surface and the convex portions in the substrate; an epitaxial process of epitaxially growing the Group III nitride semiconductor on the main surface of the substrate so as to cover the flat surface and the convex portions; and an LED lamination process of forming the LED structure by epitaxially growing the Group III nitride semiconductor subsequently to the epitaxial process, wherein the substrate-processing process includes, a patterning process of sequentially forming mask patterns in respective regions of the flat surface using a polygonal reticle having two pairs of parallel opposing ends in a plan view by a stepper exposure method, and an etching process of forming the plurality of convex portions by etching the flat surface using the mask patterns, and wherein, in an in-plane direction of the flat surface of the substrate, the plurality of the convex portions are arranged to be parallel with the two pairs of parallel ends of the reticle, respectively, and to be periodic in two axial directions of one arrangement axis and the other arrangement axis intersecting each other, and, among the plurality of convex portions, three arbitrary convex portions, which are adjacent to each other and are arranged in a triangular shape in a plan view, are disposed and formed in an isosceles triangular shape in a plan view.