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We have proposed highly efficient microcavity wavelength conversion devices that do not utilize the birefringence or ferroelectricity of crystals. In this study, we utilized a low-birefringence paraelectric SrB4O7crystal with significant potential for wavelength conversion and high transparency down to 130 nm and succeeded in achieving 199 nm vacuum-ultraviolet second harmonic generation (SHG) with a picosecond laser. The wavelength of 199 nm is shorter than the theoretical minimum for SHG in BaB2O4of 205 nm. Our device could be a practical vacuum-ultraviolet SHG device, enabling significantly smaller and more efficient vacuum-ultraviolet laser sources compared to conventional systems.

By introducing wavelength tunability, InGaN single longitudinal mode lasers can be used for pumping wavelength conversion devices with a small pump wavelength tolerance. A 405 nm InGaN tunable slotted laser was designed and fabricated by a simple process without high-resolution lithography and epitaxial regrowth. Continuous-wave single-mode oscillation was obtained. By current injection to active and slotted channels separately, a wavelength tuning range of 0.55 nm was successfully demonstrated for the first time in InGaN in-plane single-mode lasers.

Watt-class UV laser lights with symmetric spatial modes are suitable for high-resolution industrial applications. Channel waveguides with a guided mode of several ten microns diameter in MgO:LiTaO3enhance integration capability while avoiding photorefractive damages during high-power wavelength conversion. We focused on buried waveguides fabricated by proton exchange, surface-activated bonding (SAB), and proton diffusion processes in periodically-poled (PP) MgO:LiTaO3. In this work, the mode profiles were simulated using the proton diffusion coefficients estimated by secondary ion mass spectrometry. Using the simulation results, the buried waveguides with a mode diameter larger than 30 μm were fabricated. By adopting designed PP structures, second harmonic generation (SHG) devices at a wavelength of 532 nm were fabricated. The nonlinear coupling coefficient was estimated to be 0.15 W−1/2cm−1. Compared to the conventional annealed proton-exchanged waveguide SHG device without SAB, symmetric guided modes were obtained while maintaining the nonlinear coupling coefficient.

We have developed a GaN-based distributed feedback laser diode (DFB-LD) with the detuning of +5 nm to obtain a smaller temperature dependence of the threshold current. We found that the current-light characteristics almost overlapped up to 300 mW between 25 °C and 80 °C. The estimated characteristic temperature is about 2550 K. These indicate that our DFB-LD is promising for applications that require small temperature dependence in the output power and oscillation wavelength at constant operation current without precise temperature control.

GaN is an attractive material for integrating optical quantum devices. Adding a large optical nonlinearity of MgO doped congruent LiNbO3(MgO:CLN) to GaN will improve the efficiency of quantum light sources. In this work, we proposed transverse quasi-phase-matched wavelength conversion devices with waveguide core materials of MgO:CLN and GaN. The waveguide core is formed by an adhesion-free surface activated bonding (SAB). A high thin film transfer yield was achieved with a high bonding strength of 4 MPa by optimizing the bonding conditions and reducing the surface roughness of the GaN film to be 0.5 nm in a 100 × 100 μm2area using chemical mechanical polishing. The MgO:CLN/GaN waveguide structure was successfully fabricated by MgO:CLN thin film transfer, lift-off and dry etching processes. This MgO:CLN/GaN adhesion-free SAB technique is expected to be applied to various devices, such as optical devices and electronic devices, to enhance their functionality.

We have proposed highly efficient microcavity second harmonic generation devices. In this work, we designed and fabricated an a-plane GaN vertical monolithic microcavity second harmonic generation device pumped with a femtosecond laser and obtained normalized wavelength conversion efficiency of 0.15% W−1. The efficiency was comparable to the theoretical estimations taking into account the time evolution of fundamental wave intensity in the microcavity, second harmonic generation and even sum frequency generation. This result indicates the possibility of realizing ultra-compact and ultra-efficient devices pumped with long-pulsed or continuous wave lasers, in which the effect of resonance enhancement is even more pronounced.

β-Ga2O3substrates and homoepitaxial films were characterized using the multiphoton excitation photoluminescence (MPPL) method. MPPL emission peaks at 3.2 and 3.36 eV were obtained with broad shoulders on the low energy side. MPPL images showed the presence of nanopipes in the substrate with a unique contrast. Three-dimensional MPPL imaging revealed the distribution and spatial location of the nanopipes. All the nanopipes were elongated along the [010] direction with diameters of approximately 0.4–1.0 μm and lengths of 10–30 μm. The nanopipes were aligned in the [100] and [001] directions with sub-micron spacing in the (01¯0)-oriented substrate. The nanopipes were located under the hillocks at the homoepitaxial surface. The nanopipes are suggested to trigger the hillock growth by transforming into threading dislocations in the homoepitaxial film.

Far-UV light sources have attracted much attention for human-safe viral inactivation and bacterial disinfection. Due to large optical nonlinearity and transparency to this wavelength region, AlN is a promising material for compact and low-cost far-UV second harmonic generation (SHG) devices. In this study, a transverse quasi-phase-matched AlN channel waveguide with vertical polarity inversion was designed and fabricated. From wavelength spectra and a pump power dependence of an SH intensity, far-UV SHG via the largest nonlinear optical tensor component d33was successfully confirmed under ultrashort pulse laser excitation.

A wavelength conversion device with an input grating coupler that enables easy alignment was fabricated using a vertically polarity inverted GaN layer. The device was excited with a femtosecond laser, and a second harmonic wave with a peak wavelength of 438.4 nm was obtained. A normalized wavelength conversion efficiency of 4.7 × 10−4% W−1and a spectral bandwidth of the second harmonic wave of 2.9 nm were comparable to the theoretical estimations taking into account serious walk-off and waveguide losses. High efficiency of 33%–34% W−1can be expected under continuous-wave excitation.

A GaN crystal comprises two polar structures along the c-axis direction, and functions as a quasi-phase-matching (QPM) crystal by fabricating a periodic inversion structure. We fabricated GaN-QPM crystals to design rib-waveguide-type devices for achieving highly efficient wavelength conversion. The QPM period required for wavelength conversion was calculated in the design phase of the device structure. GaN-QPM crystals with the obtained period were fabricated using double-polarity selective-area growth (DP-SAG). The GaN-QPM crystal was then used to fabricate a second-harmonic generation (SHG) device with a rib waveguide structure. Optical measurements revealed that the device achieved wavelength conversion from 840 to 420 nm. Further, the SHG device exhibited a wavelength conversion efficiency of 1.5 × 10–4% W-1. These results indicated that GaN-QPM crystals fabricated by DP-SAG can be used for wavelength conversion.

Watt-class wavelength conversion is expected by enlarging the mode size of the channel waveguides to dozens of micrometers to avoid optical damage with high-power pump lasers. In this work, uniform periodically-poled (PP) structures in MgO doped stoichiometric LiTaO3were fabricated by applying voltage with a SiO2insulation layer. Annealed proton-exchanged waveguides with a full width at 1/e2maximum in a width of 43 μm with an in-depth of 28 μm were obtained by proton exchanging for 4 h and thermal diffusion for 75 h. This waveguide can be excited by pump waves with a power of 8.6 W considering the optical damage threshold. Second harmonic generation with a wavelength of 515 nm was conducted in the low power region of about 35 mW to investigate the basic characteristics. Normalized wavelength conversion efficiency in the 15 mm long PP structures was estimated to be 4.3% W−1.

We proposed a nitride semiconductor transverse quasi-phase-matched wavelength conversion device with a polarity inverted structure along the vertical direction formed by surface-activated bonding and etching processes. Inductively coupled plasma etching of a GaN layer with maintaining a root mean square roughness of less than 2 nm in a 100 μm square area was achieved even after deep etching of 1 μm using Cl2/Ar mixture gas and optimizing the antenna and bias powers. This smooth etching enabled surface-activated bonding of the ultrathin GaN layer with designed thickness. The fabrication process of the GaN polarity inverted channel waveguide was established.

We investigated influences of mask pattern on the emission from InGaN multiple quantum wells through the differences in plane orientation appearing on the multifaceted islands in selective area metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Cathodoluminescence mapping confirmed that emission colors changed depending on the crystal plane. Photoluminescence spectroscopy showed that the emission wavelength red-shifted by increasing the mask width. By combining the difference of indium incorporation efficiency depending on the crystal plane and the lateral vapor phase diffusion effect, multiple quantum wells with different emission wavelengths of up to 106 nm were grown simultaneously in the microscale region.

We investigated the InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) thickness and cathode luminescence (CL) distribution on nonpolar (11–20)GaN, semipolar (11–22)GaN, and (1–101)GaN microstripes grown by selective metal‐organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on patterned Si substrates. All samples exhibited ridge growth. To clarify the effect of vapor phase diffusion, the two‐dimensional diffusion equation was solved. The results were in good agreement with the thickness distribution on the (11–20)GaN stripe when we assumed D/k0to be 1 µm. However, the results were not in agreement for the semipolar case. On the semipolar face, the surface migration length might be greater, thus increasing the thickness nonuniformity. CL analysis indicated a uniform indium composition on the (11–20) and (11–22) faces. On the (1–101)GaN stripe, the indium composition decreased near the (0001) edge. Excess Ga is considered to affect the compositional nonuniformity on the (1–101) facet.

We present a study of semi-polar (1-101) InGaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on patterned (001) Si substrates by atmospheric-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition. A transmission electron microscopy image of the semi-polar template shows that the threading dislocation density was decreased significantly. From electroluminescence measurement, semi-polar LEDs exhibit little blue-shift and low efficiency droop at a high injection current because the reduction of the polarization field not only made the band diagram smoother but also restricted electron overflow to the p-GaN layer as shown in simulations. These results indicate that semi-polar InGaN-based LEDs can possess a high radiative recombination rate and low efficiency droop at a high injection current.

We proposed a monolithic microcavity wavelength conversion device without a polarity-inverted structure. The device consists of a low birefringence paraelectric material and a dielectric material. A fundamental wave intensity is enhanced significantly in the microcavity with two distributed Bragg reflectors, and a second-harmonic wave is efficiently generated in a very short region close to a coherence length. As a first step of this study, we used GaN as a device material, and succeeded in the blue second harmonic generation with a wavelength of 428 nm.

Burgers vectors bof threading dislocations in freestanding GaN substrates were identified through statistical classification using the etch pit and multiphoton-excitation photoluminescence methods. The b= 1a+ 1cthreading mixed dislocations were propagated with large inclination angles more than four degrees from the c-axis to minimize elastic strain energy. The b= 1cthreading edge dislocations had a large contrast difference of more than 0.4 in the photoluminescence image due to their strong nonradiative properties. Based on these characteristics obtained through multiphoton-excitation photoluminescence measurements, major types of dislocations (b= 1a, 1a+ 1c, 1c) could statistically be identified.

We implemented facet and flattening (FF) growth via hydride vapor phase epitaxy, and applied hexagonal SiO2 mask patterns to minimize the final threading dislocation density (TDD). We found that the FF growth technique with hexagonal masks significantly mitigates the lattice curvature. Following multiple growth steps, an isotropic curvature could be observed owing to the planar symmetry of the mask patterns; the radius of curvature was 55 m. Furthermore, TDD was significantly reduced to 6.8 x 105 cm[?]2. These results indicate that the hexagonal mask technique is effective for improving both lattice curvature and crystalline quality of a GaN substrate.

ScAlMgO4 (SCAM) substrates with a small lattice-mismatch to GaN and c-plane cleavability are promising for fabricating high-quality free-standing GaN wafers. To reduce the cost in the fabrication of free-standing GaN wafers, the reuse of a SCAM substrate is demonstrated. By cleaving a SCAM substrate which has been already utilized for the growth of a thick GaN film by halide vapor phase epitaxy, the atomically flat surface can be obtained. The threading dislocation density of a 320 um thick GaN film grown on this cleaved SCAM substrate is 2.4 x 107 cm[?]2, which is almost the same as that on a new SCAM substrate. This result indicates that a SCAM substrate can be reused for GaN growth.

The three-dimensional imaging of threading dislocations in GaN films was demonstrated using two-photon excitation photoluminescence. The threading dislocations were shown as dark lines. The spatial resolutions near the surface were about 0.32 and 3.2 µm for the in-plane and depth directions, respectively. The threading dislocations with a density less than 108cm?2were resolved, although the aberration induced by the refractive index mismatch was observed. The decrease in threading dislocation density was clearly observed by increasing the GaN film thickness. This can be considered a novel method for characterizing threading dislocations in GaN films without any destructive preparations.

The metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) gate N-polar GaN/AlGaN/GaN high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) on a (0001) sapphire substrate, which can be expected to operate with lower on-resistance and more easily work on the pinch-off operation than an N-polar AlGaN/GaN HEMT, was fabricated. For suppressing the step bunching and hillocks peculiar in the N-polar growth, a sapphire substrate with an off-cut angle as small as 0.8° was introduced and an N-polar GaN/AlGaN/GaN HEMT without the step bunching was firstly obtained by optimizing the growth conditions. The previously reported anisotropy of transconductance related to the step was eliminated. The pinch-off operation was also realized. These results indicate that this device is promising.

Halide vapor phase epitaxy of thick GaN films was demonstrated on ScAlMgO4(SCAM) substrates, and their self-separation was achieved. The 320-µm-thick GaN film was self-separated from the SCAM substrate during the cooling process after the growth. This separation phenomenon occurred because of both the c-plane cleavability of SCAM and the difference in the thermal-expansion coefficients between GaN and SCAM. The dark-spot densities for the GaN films on the SCAM substrates were approximately 30% lower than those on sapphire substrates. These results indicate that SCAM substrates are promising for fabricating a high-quality freestanding GaN wafer at a low cost.

Cleaved ScAlMgO4(SCAM) substrates with small lattice mismatch of 1.8% to GaN were used for metalorganic vapor phase epitaxial (MOVPE) growth of GaN. A single crystalline GaN film with a flat surface was obtained on a cleaved substrate without peeling off of the film, which is contrast to the growth on ZnO substrate with comparably small lattice mismatch to GaN. Polarity of the film was proven to be Ga polarity and an interface model was proposed based on the topmost surface structure of the cleaved SCAM. The effect of substrate‐cleaning and growth conditions on the surface morphology, crystallographic orientation relationship with the substrate, threading dislocation densities, small residual strains, and small background carrier density of GaN have been studied. To discuss the residual strains, thermal expansion coefficient of SCAM has also been measured.

The internal electric fields in III-polar (0001), N-polar , and semipolar InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes were investigated by electroreflectance (ER) spectroscopy. The ER spectra reflected the difference in the direction and strength of internal electric fields. Phase analyses of the ER signal revealed that only III-polar InGaN wells have the opposite direction of the internal electric field at zero bias voltage; this finding is in good agreement with the results of numerical analyses. Quantitative analyses of internal electric fields were conducted by the linewidth analyses of ER spectra. Our experimental results indicate that the absolute value of internal electric fields can be measured from ER spectra.

N-polar $(000\bar{1})$ ([?]c-plane) InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy, and their optoelectronic properties were evaluated by electroreflectance (ER) and electroluminescence (EL) measurements. In [?]c-plane LEDs, the emission energy was much lower than that in c-plane LEDs. By comparing EL and ER results, we found that the emission energy was also much lower than the transition energy. The transition energy is in good agreement with X-ray diffraction analysis results. These results indicate that [?]c-plane LEDs exhibit a larger Stokes-like shift than do c-plane LEDs. This Stokes-like shift is due to the strong potential fluctuation, which is possibly caused by the specific growth patterns of [?]c-plane III-nitrides. The dominant emission centers of the [?]c-plane LEDs were suggested to be the localized states of InGaN islands.

We report on the polarity control of GaN regrown on pulsed-laser-deposition-grown N-polar AlN on a metalorganic-vapor-phase-epitaxy-grown Ga-polar GaN template. The polarity of the regrown GaN, which was confirmed using aqueous KOH solutions, can be inverted from that of AlN by inserting a low-temperature GaN (LT-GaN) buffer layer. We hypothetically ascribe the Ga-polarity selection of GaN on the LT-GaN buffer layer to the mixed polarity of LT-GaN grains and higher growth rate of the Ga-polar grain, which covers up the N-polar grain during the initial stage of the high-temperature growth. The X-ray rocking curve analysis revealed that the edge-dislocation density in the N-polar regrown GaN is 5 to 8 times smaller than that in the Ga-polar regrown GaN. N-polar GaN grows directly on N-polar AlN at higher temperatures. Therefore, nucleus islands grow larger than those of LT-GaN and the area fraction of coalescence boundaries between islands, where edge dislocations emerge, becomes smaller.

To improve the homogeneity of the N-polar $(000\bar{1})$ ([?]c-plane) InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE), the growth of GaN and MQW on two c-plane sapphire substrates with an off-cut angle of 0.8deg toward the a-plane (sub-A) and the m-plane (sub-M) was performed. The effects of the off-cut direction on the structural properties and surface morphologies of [?]c-plane GaN films were elucidated. It was found that the step bunching and meandering of [?]c-plane GaN were significantly suppressed on sub-A. The spatial homogeneity of the [?]c-plane InGaN/GaN MQWs along the off-cut direction was observed in the submicrometer scale using microbeam X-ray diffraction. By inhibiting the step bunching of the GaN template using sub-A, the thickness homogeneity of the MQWs on sub-A has been significantly improved in comparison with that on sub-M.

The electrical characteristics of Ni/N-polar p-GaN Schottky contacts were investigated in comparison with those of Ga-polar contacts. The Schottky barrier heights were obtained to be 0.91, 1.24, and 1.30 eV from the current-voltage (I-V), capacitance-voltage, and photoresponse results, respectively. These values of the N-polar samples were more than 1 eV lower than those of the Ga-polar samples. Hence, it was suggested that a Ni contact on N-polar p-GaN has a possible advantage in forming better ohmic electrodes. In addition, we also found that no memory effect, which was caused by the charge and discharge of surface defects [Ga vacancies (VGa)], was observed in the I-V characteristics, and no single peak of VGa was observed in the high-temperature isothermal capacitance transient spectroscopy spectrum. Therefore, it is suggested that the topmost N atomic layer can suppress the Ga out-diffusion.

The effects of growth conditions such as Mg/Ga and V/III ratios on the properties of N-polar $(000\bar{1})$ p-type GaN grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy were studied. Photoluminescence spectra from Mg-doped GaN depended on Mg/Ga and V/III ratios. For the lightly doped samples, the band-to-acceptor emission was observed at 3.3 eV and its relative intensity decreased with increasing V/III ratio. For the heavily doped samples, the donor-acceptor pair emission was observed at 2.8 eV and its peak intensity monotonically decreased with V/III ratio. The hole concentration was maximum for the Mg/Ga ratio. This is the same tendency as in group-III polar (0001) growth. The V/III ratio also reduced the hole concentration. The higher V/III ratio reduced the concentration of residual donors such as oxygen by substituting nitrogen atoms. The surface became rougher with increasing V/III ratio and the hillock density increased.

N-polar (?c-plane) InGaN light-emitting diodes with emission wavelengths ranging from blue to green to red were fabricated on a c-plane sapphire substrate by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. The optimization of growth conditions for ?c-plane InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells was performed. As a result, the extension of the emission wavelength from 444 to 633 nm under a constant current of 20 mA was achieved by changing the growth temperature of quantum wells from 880 to 790 °C.

We demonstrated lasing action and investigated the optical properties of multiquantum-well (MQW) stripe crystals on patterned (001) Si substrates. Longitudinal and higher order transverse modes were observed from a ridge waveguide structure. These results strongly suggest the possibility of fabricating InGaN MQW laser diodes on (001) Si.

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) on semipolar ($1\bar{1}01$) GaN microstripes on a Si substrate were fabricated and their optical properties were investigated. From cathodoluminescence (CL) analysis, strong CL emission was obtained in an MQW emitting at 433 nm. However, dark lines appeared in MQWs emitting at longer wavelengths. These dark lines are attributed to lattice relaxation and the generation of misfit dislocations and stacking faults in an MQW, resulting in nonradiative centers. The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) was estimated from excitation-power-dependent photoluminescence analysis. The ($1\bar{1}01$) InGaN/GaN MQW had a high IQE owing to the high crystalline quality of the underlying GaN and the reduced piezoelectric field. The IQE at a carrier concentration of $1\times 10^{18}$ cm-3in a sample emitting at 490 nm was as high as 90%. The efficiency decreased in a sample with a higher indium content in the MQW due to the generation of misfit dislocations and stacking faults.

GaN films were successfully grown on Si(111) substrates using a reactive-sputter-deposited AlN intermediate layer (sp-AlN) at 350 °C. Uniform GaN growth was obtained with the pre sputtering of a thin Al film before the deposition of sp-AlN. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements revealed that the density of pits originating from the ends of mixed/screw-type dislocations is about $10^{9}$ cm-2, which is much lower than that of GaN grown on a metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) deposited AlN intermediate layer. The decrease in the pit density might have originated from the small number of initial nuclei of GaN.

A drastic reduction of the dislocation density in a semipolar ($11\bar{2}2$) GaN stripe on a patterned Si substrate was achieved by the two-step selective growth of a GaN stripe. After depositing a SiO2mask on the ($11\bar{2}2$) and ($000\bar{1}$) faces of a GaN stripe grown on a (113) Si substrate, GaN was regrown only on the ($\bar{1}\bar{1}22$) face. The dislocation density estimated from the dark-spot density in a cathodoluminescence (CL) image greatly decreased from $4.0\times 10^{8}$ to $1.0\times 10^{5}$/cm2in the regrowth region. A transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image also verified that there were no dislocations at the regrowth interfaces.

We present a study of semi-polar (1101) InGaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on patterned (001) Si substrates by atmospheric-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition. A transmission electron microscopy image of the semi-polar template shows that the threading dislocation density was decreased significantly. From electroluminescence measurement, semi-polar LEDs exhibit little blue-shift and low efficiency droop at a high injection current because the reduction of the polarization field not only made the band diagram smoother but also restricted electron overflow to the p-GaN layer as shown in simulations. These results indicate that semi-polar InGaN-based LEDs can possess a high radiative recombination rate and low efficiency droop at a high injection current.

We present a study of semi-polar (1101) InGaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on patterned (001) Si substrates by atmospheric-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition. A transmission electron microscopy image of the semi-polar template shows that the threading dislocation density was decreased significantly. From electroluminescence measurement, semi-polar LEDs exhibit little blue-shift and low efficiency droop at a high injection current because the reduction of the polarization field not only made the band diagram smoother but also restricted electron overflow to the p-GaN layer as shown in simulations. These results indicate that semi-polar InGaN-based LEDs can possess a high radiative recombination rate and low efficiency droop at a high injection current.