Patent ID: 8080484

Claim:
A method for manufacturing a Group III nitride semiconductor layer, which comprises: a sputtering step of disposing a substrate and a target containing a Group Ill element in a chamber, introducing a gas for formation of a plasma in the chamber, and forming the Group III nitride semiconductor layer in which Si has been added as a dopant, on the substrate by a reactive sputtering method; wherein a Si hydride is added in the gas for formation of a plasma; and the sputtering step comprises: a first plasma generation step of adding the Si hydride in the gas for formation of a first plasma, which contains no nitrogen element, introducing the gas in the chamber and sputtering the target, thereby generating the first plasma containing sputtering particles comprised of at least a Group III element, and a second plasma generation step of introducing the gas for formation of a second plasma, which contains at least a nitrogen element, in the chamber and generating the second plasma containing at least the nitrogen element; wherein the Group III nitride semiconductor layer is formed by performing the first plasma generation step and the second plasma generation step repeatedly and alternately.