Takashi Matsuoka received his PhD degree in Engineering from Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan and has been a Professor at the Institute for Materials Research at Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan since 2005. Having worked at the NTT from 1978 to 2005, he developed a single-longitudinal mode laser diode and proposed the InGaAlN system and the epitaxial growth of a single crystalline InGaN layer for blue LEDs. Yoshihiro Kangawa has been an Associate Professor at the Research Institute for Applied Mechanics (RIAM) of Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan since 2005. He received his Doctor of Engineering from Kyushu University and was a research associate at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan from 2000 to 2002. He subsequently served as a research associate at the Department of Applied Chemistry at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology from 2002 to 2004. His research is concerned with theoretical investigation of the crystal growth mechanism, e.g. using ab initio-based approaches and thermodynamic analysis.

• Introduction.- Computational Methods.- Fundamental Properties of III-Nitrides.- Growth Processes.- Novel Behaviour of Thin Films.- Summary.