Using self-aligned SiO nano-spheres as an etching mask, the authors demonstrated the formation of a GaN-based nano-inverted pyramid (NIP) structure. It was found that crystal quality of the GaN epilayer prepared on an NIP/GaN template was significantly better than that prepared with conventional low-temperature GaN nucleation layer. With the NIP structure, it was found that 20-mA light-emitting-diode (LED) output power can be enhanced by 32%, as compared with the conventional LED.