Patent ID: 8679248

Claim:
A low pressure and low temperature process for growing flexible, millimeter-scale gallium nitride whiskers from solution, comprising: (a) charging a reaction vessel with a Group IA element nitride and a gallium composition comprising gallium mixed with at least one of bismuth and antimony, the gallium composition being in contact with the Group IA element nitride; (b) placing the charged reaction and vessel into a chamber; (c) applying an inert gas pressure of 0.1 to 20 MPa to the reaction vessel; (d) applying a first temperature to the reaction vessel, the Group IA element nitride and gallium nitride being thermodynamically stable at the applied first temperature and the applied inert gas pressure, the applied first temperature and applied inert gas pressure being configured to produce a controlled self-developing exchange reaction between the Group IA element nitride material and the gallium, wherein the Group IA element is released from the Group IA element nitride material and is substituted by a first portion of the gallium to form a gallium nitride feedstock in place of the Group IA element nitride material, and wherein the released Group IA element material, a second portion of the gallium and the at least one of bismuth and antimony simultaneously form a solvent for the gallium nitride feedstock, the gallium nitride feedstock and the solvent forming a complete self-developing growth medium for growing gallium nitride crystals; and (e) while still applying the inert gas pressure, applying a second temperature of between 700 to 900° C. to the reaction vessel, wherein the applied gas pressure and the second temperature are configured to cause the gallium nitride from the gallium nitride feedstock to dissolve in the solvent, forming a solution, and to precipitate out of the solution exclusively in the form of flexible, millimeter-scale gallium nitride whiskers.