Patent ID: 6920166

Claim:
A thin film deposition method of forming thin films on a substrate by selective-area growth of a nitride semiconductor whose principal orientation plane is a (0001) plane, said thin film deposition method comprising the steps of: forming on a principal orientation plane of said substrate a masking material including stripe-like openings parallel to a [1-100] direction of a nitride semiconductor to be grown by selective-area growth, or polygon-like openings whose side is parallel to a [1-100] direction of a nitride semiconductor thin film to be grown by selective-area growth, to expose part of the principal orientation plane of said substrate; growing nitride semiconductor thin films on the opening region by selective-area growth by vapor phase growth using a gas containing a metallic magnesium or a magnesium compound, said nitride semiconductor thin films including a first nitride semiconductor crystal portion formed as a result of growth in the direction perpendicular to the (0001) principal plane and a second nitride semiconductor crystal portion formed as a result of growth of {11−2x} (x=0, 1, 2) facets; and making Mg concentration of said second nitride semiconductor crystal portion lower than that of said first nitride semiconductor crystal portion.