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We report a polarized white light-emitting device that monolithically integrates an electrically injected blue light-emitting diode grown on the (2021) face of a bulk GaN substrate and optically pumped InGaN quantum wells (QWs) with green and red light emission grown on the (2021) face. To overcome the challenges associated with growing high indium content InGaN QWs for long wavelength emission, a p-i-n doping profile was used to red-shift the emission wavelength of one of the optically pumped QWs by creating a built-in electric field in the same direction as the polarization-induced electric field. Emission peaks were observed at 450 nm from the electrically injected QW and at 520 nm and 590 nm from the optically pumped QWs, which were situated in n-i-n and p-i-n structures, respectively. The optically pumped QW in the p-i-n structure was grown at a growth temperature that was 10 °C colder compared to the QW in the n-i-n structure, so the emission from the QW in the p-i-n structure was red-shifted due to increased indium content as well as the built-in electric field. Modeling work confirmed that the built-in electric field made a greater contribution than the change in alloy composition to the red-shift in emission from the QW in the p-i-n structure. The combined emission from the red, green, and blue QWs resulted in white-light emission with Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage x- and y-chromaticity coordinates of (0.33, 0.35) and an optical polarization ratio of 0.30. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We carried out a series of simulations analyzing the dependence of mirror reflectance, threshold current density, and differential efficiency on the scattering loss caused by the roughness of tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) intracavity contacts for 405 nm flip-chip III-nitride vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). From these results, we determined that the ITO root-mean-square (RMS) roughness should be <1 nm to minimize scattering losses in VCSELs. Motivated by this requirement, we investigated the surface morphology and optoelectronic properties of electron-beam (e-beam) evaporated ITO films, as a function of substrate temperature and oxygen flow and pressure. The transparency and conductivity were seen to increase with increasing temperature. Decreasing the oxygen flow and pressure resulted in an increase in the transparency and resistivity. Neither the temperature, nor oxygen flow and pressure series on single-layer ITO films resulted in highly transparent and conductive films with <1 nm RMS roughness. To achieve <1 nm RMS roughness with good optoelectronic properties, a multi-layer ITO film was developed, utilizing a two-step temperature scheme. The optimized multi-layer ITO films had an RMS roughness of <1 nm, along with a high transparency (~90% at 405 nm) and low resistivity (~2 × 10–4 Ω-cm). This multi-layer ITO e-beam deposition technique is expected to prevent p-GaN plasma damage, typically observed in sputtered ITO films on p-GaN, while simultaneously reducing the threshold current density and increasing the differential efficiency of III-nitride VCSELs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The optical properties and coupling of excitons to surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) in Ag, Au, and Al-coated InxGa1-xN/GaN multiple and single quantum wells (SQWs) were probed with timeresolved cathodoluminescence. Excitons were generated in the metal coated SQWs by injecting a pulsed high-energy electron beam through the thin metal films. The Purcell enhancement factor (Fp) was obtained by direct measurement of changes in the temperature-dependent radiative lifetime caused by the SQW exciton-SPP coupling. Three chosen plasmonic metals of Al, Ag, and Au facilitate an interesting comparison of the exciton-SPP coupling for energy ranges in which the SP energy is greater than, approximately equal to, and less than the excitonic transition energy for the InGaN/GaN QW emitter. A modeling of the temperature dependence of the Purcell enhancement factor, Fp, included the effects of ohmic losses of the metals and changes in the dielectric properties due to the temperature dependence of (i) the intraband behavior in the Drude model and (ii) the interband critical point transition energies which involve the d-bands of Au and Ag. We show that an inclusion of both intraband and interband effects is essential when calculating the ω vs k SPP dispersion relation, plasmon density of states (DOS), and the dependence of Fp on frequency and temperature. Moreover, the "back bending" in the SPP dispersion relation when including ohmic losses can cause a finite DOS above xsp and lead to a measurable Fp in a limited energy range above ωsp, which can potentially be exploited in plasmonic devices utilizing Ag and Au. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scanning near-field optical spectroscopy was applied to study spatial variations of emission spectra at room temperature in semipolar (2021) InxGa1-xN/GaN single quantum wells (QWs) for 0.11 ⩽ x ⩽ 0:36. Photoluminescence (PL) was found to be highly uniform, with peak wavelength deviations and peak intensity deviations divided by average values in the range of 6-12 meV and 0.03-0.07, respectively. Near-field maps of PL parameters showed large, ~5 to 10μm size areas of similar values, as opposed to 100 nm scale variations, often reported for InGaN QWs. The nearfield PL spectra were found to broaden with increasing InN molar fraction. In the low In content QWs, the broadening is primarily determined by the random cation distribution, while for larger InN molar fractions 10 nm scale localization sites with increasingly deeper band potentials are suggested as the linewidth broadening cause. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report on the morphological evolution of InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on nominally on-axis and intentionally misoriented free-standing m-plane GaN substrates. Large variations in p-n junction depth (±175nm) were observed for LEDs grown on nominally on-axis substrates, while negligible variations in junction depth (±20 nm) were observed for LEDs grown on intentionally misoriented substrates. The surfaces of LEDs grown on the nominally on-axis substrates were characterized by the presence of a high density of pyramidal hillocks [Hirai et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 191906 (2007)], while the surfaces of the LEDs grown on the intentionally misoriented substrates were relatively smooth and free of pyramidal hillocks. Detailed measurements indicated that the variations in junction depth observed for LEDs grown on nominally on-axis substrates were related to an evolution in the shape of individual pyramidal hillocks during the growth of the LEDs. These results indicate that growing LEDs on intentionally misoriented substrates is an effective way to eliminate the pyramidal hillocks and variations in junction depth associated with growth on nominally on-axis substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Semipolar GaN-based light emitting devices show great promise because of reduced polarization-related electric fields in the quantum wells and the potential for high indium uptake in InxGa1-xN quantum wells. In semipolar GaN, the (0001) slip plane is inclined with respect to the film normal, thus shear stresses are present on this plane for nominally misfitting layer growth. We present scattering contrast transmission electron microscopy studies of (1122) and (2021) semipolar GaN-based laser diode structures. Misfit dislocations were observed at the nominally misfitting heterointerfaces in the (1122) structures with line direction [1100] and Burgers vector in the (0001) plane. Similar observations are reported for the (2021) structures. Overall, the results are consistent with stress relaxation by threading dislocation glide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vacancy-type defects in AlN grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) and lateral epitaxial overgrowth (LEO) using halide vapor phase epitaxy were probed by a monoenergetic positron beam. Doppler broadening spectra of the annihilation radiation were measured and compared to the spectra calculated using the projector augmented-wave method. For MOVPE-AlN, the concentration of vacancy-type defects was high near the interface between AlN and the GaN buffer layer, and the defect-rich region expanded from the interface toward the surface when the NH3 flow rate increased. For the sample grown on the AlN buffer layer, however, the introduction of such defects was suppressed. For LEO-AlN, distinct deep emission peaks at 3–6 eV were observed in cathodoluminescence spectra. From a comparison between Doppler broadening spectra measured for LEO-AlN and computer simulated ones, an origin of the peaks was identified as complexes of Al vacancy (VAl) and oxygen atoms substituting nitrogen sites such as VAl(ON)n (n=3 and 4). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smooth N-polar InGaN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN multiquantum wells (MQWs) and heterostructures were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition on (0001) sapphire substrates with misorientation angles of 2°–5° toward the a-sapphire plane. For all investigated structures the tendency toward formation of multiatomic steps at the film surface and at interfaces increased with increasing misorientation angle. Thereby the crystal misorientation led to a stronger degradation of the interface quality and periodicity of InGaN/GaN in comparison to the AlGaN/GaN MQWs. While the alloy composition of AlGaN films was unaffected by the misorientation, the indium mole fraction in the InGaN layers and the wavelength of the MQW related luminescence decreased with increasing misorientation angle. The properties of the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG), which formed at the upper interface of semi-insulating GaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures, were strongly anisotropic. Whereas the resistivity of the 2DEG measured perpendicular to the surface steps/undulations decreased with increasing misorientation angle, the resistivity measured in the parallel direction was significantly lower and unaffected by the crystal misorientation. Electron mobility values as high as 1800 cm2/V s were determined for conduction parallel to the surface steps/undulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smooth N-polar GaN/AlxGa1-xN/GaN heterostructures with a different Al mole fraction were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on (0001) sapphire substrates with a misorientation angle of 4° toward the a-sapphire plane. The sheet electron density of the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG), which formed at the upper GaN/AlxGa1-xN interface increased with an increasing Al-mole fraction in the AlxGa1-xN layer and increasing silicon modulation doping, similar to the observations for Ga-polar heterostructures. The transport properties of the 2DEG, however, were anisotropic. The growth on vicinal substrates led to the formation of well ordered multiatomic steps during AlxGa1-xN growth and the sheet resistance of the 2DEG parallel to the steps was about 25% lower than the resistance measured in the perpendicular direction. The fabricated devices exhibited a drain-source current, IDS, of 0.9 A/mm at a gate-source voltage +1 V. At a drain-source voltage of 10 V and IDS=300 mA/mm, current-gain and maximum oscillation frequencies of 15 and 38 GHz, respectively, were measured. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scanning capacitance microscopy is used to characterize nanoscale, local electronic structure in nonpolar n-type GaN grown in the a-plane orientation using lateral epitaxial overgrowth (LEO). Analysis of the bias dependence of the scanning capacitance image contrast observed reveals the presence of a linear, positively charged feature aligned along the [1100] direction, extending from an LEO window region into the adjacent wing region and terminating a few microns into the wing region. Comparison of the scanning capacitance images with cathodoluminescence and transmission electron microscopy data, revealing the presence of line defects aligned along the [1100] direction that emerge from the window regions, indicates that this positively charged feature likely corresponds to a partial dislocation at the edge of a stacking fault. The observation of positive dislocation charge is striking in that studies of GaN grown in the polar c-plane orientation have predominantly revealed the presence only of negatively charged or electrically neutral dislocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smooth, high quality N-polar GaN films were realized by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) through growth on misoriented (0001) sapphire substrates and the development of a high temperature nucleation process. Misorientation angles from 0.5° to 4° toward the a and the m plane of the sapphire substrate were investigated. Whereas GaN films grown on substrates with a misorientation angle of only 0.5° or 1° exhibited high densities of hexagonal surface features as commonly observed for N-polar GaN films grown by MOCVD, smooth GaN layers were obtained on sapphire substrates with misorientation angles of 2° or larger. In addition, the structural and optical properties of the GaN films significantly improved with increasing misorientation angle, as evaluated by high resolution x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and photoluminescence measurements. The properties of GaN layers grown on (0001) sapphire with a misorientation of 4° were comparable to Ga-polar GaN films grown in the same reactor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have examined the carrier capture dynamics and excitation dependent charge distributions of coupled InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well samples. We measured the temporal evolution of time-delayed cathodoluminescence (CL) spectra to study the temperature- and excitation-dependent transfer of carriers from a surrounding confinement region into a coupled single quantum well. Samples possessing two different structures for the confinement region [i.e., number of quantum wells (QWs) and varying widths] were examined with CL. In order to study state filling of the SQW and QWs in the confinement region, we calculated the quasi-Fermi levels and carrier densities by utilizing a model that involves self-consistent solutions of the nonlinear Poisson-Schrödinger equation for wurtzite QWs including strain, deformation potentials, and polarization fields. Band-edge and effective mass parameters were first obtained from a strain- and In composition-dependent k·p calculation for wurtzite InxGa1-xN, using a 6×6 k·p Hamiltonian in the {0001} representation. The model shows that the difference in the quasi-Fermi levels between the confinement and SQW regions decreases with increasing excitation and temperature. Likewise, a reversal in the relative magnitude of the carrier densities between these two regions occurs at a certain temperature and excitation. Furthermore, the results for the model describing the steady-state excitation are consistent with those for the transient excitation in time-resolved CL, which also exhibit a marked increase in the rate of carrier transfer to the SQW region as the temperature increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

GaN nanopillar and nanostripe arrays with embedded InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) were fabricated by holographic lithography and subsequent reactive ion etching. Etch related damage of the nanostructures was successfully healed through annealing in NH3/N2 mixtures under optimized conditions. The nanopatterned samples exhibited enhanced luminescence in comparison to the planar wafers. X-ray reciprocal space maps recorded around the asymmetric (1015) reflection revealed that the MQWs in both nanopillars and nanostripes relaxed after nanopatterning and adopted a larger in-plane lattice constant than the underlying GaN layer. The pillar relaxation process had no measurable effect on the Stokes shift typically observed in MQWs on c-plane GaN, as evaluated by excitation power dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements. Angular-resolved PL measurements revealed the extraction of guided modes from the nanopillar arrays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

p-n junctions formed by selective regrowth of n-(Al)GaN on p-GaN were characterized by I–V measurements and secondary-ion-mass spectrometry (SIMS). Regrown p-n diodes of high quality with low leakage currents were achieved, comparable to as-grown GaN p-n diodes, by optimizing the regrowth conditions and structures. SIMS revealed a sharp Mg profile at the regrowth interface. It confirms that these regrown structures are suitable to serve as emitter-base junctions for GaN-based bipolar transistors. This study offers us insight into analyzing n-p-n GaN homojunction bipolar transistors with a current gain of 10 and Al0.05GaN/GaN heterojunction bipolar transistors with a current gain of 20, demonstrated using emitter regrowth technique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rotational Maker fringes, scaled with respect to χ11(2) of crystalline quartz, were used to determine the second order susceptibilities χ31(2) and χ33(2) for samples of thin AlxGa1-xN films, a thicker GaN film, and a free-standing GaN platelets. The pump wavelength was 1064 nm. The AlxGa1-xN samples, ranging in thickness from roughly 0.5 to 4.4 μm, were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) and hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE) on (0001) sapphire substrates. The Al mole fractions x were 0, 0.419, 0.507, 0.618, 0.660, and 0.666, for the MOCVD-grown samples, and x=0, 0.279, 0.363, and 0.593 for the HVPE-grown samples. An additional HVPE-grown GaN sample ∼70 μm thick was also examined. The free-standing bulk GaN platelets consisted of an HVPE grown film ∼226 μm thick removed from its growth substrate, and a crystal ∼160 μm thick grown by high-pressure techniques. For the AlxGa1-xN samples, the magnitudes of χ31(2) and χ33(2) decrease roughly linearly with increasing x and extrapolate to ∼0 for x=1. Furthermore, the constraint expected for a perfect wurtzite structure, namely χ33(2)=-2χ31(2), was seldom observed, and the samples with x=0.660 and x=0.666 showed χ31(2) and χ33(2) having the same sign. These results are consistent with the theoretical studies of nonlinear susceptibilities for AlN and GaN performed by Chen et al. [Appl. Phys. Lett. 66, 1129 (1995)]. The thicker bulk GaN samples displayed a complex superposition of high- and low-frequency Maker fringes due to the multiple-pass interference of the pump and second-harmonic generation beams, and the nonlinear coefficients were approximately consistent with those measured for the thin-film GaN sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth and electrical characteristics of Mg-doped p-type nonpolar (1120) a-plane GaN films, grown on (1102) r-plane sapphire substrates via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, were investigated as a function of growth rate, the ammonia to trimethylgallium flow ratio (V/III ratio), and the growth temperature. The electrical conductivity of the films exhibited a strong dependence on the growth parameters. Secondary-ion-mass-spectroscopy measurements indicated that more Mg was incorporated at higher growth rate and at lower growth temperatures. The Mg concentration in the films increased linearly with the Mg flow. A maximum hole concentration of 6.8×1017cm-3 was achieved at room temperature for a Mg concentration of 7.6×1019cm ,, corresponding to 0.9% ionization. Further increase in the Mg concentration resulted in increased surface roughness as well as a significant decrease in the hole concentration. p-n junction diodes were fabricated using nonpolar a-plane GaN, and the current-voltage characteristics of these diodes showed a sharp turn-on at ∼3 V. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A prism coupling method was used to measure the ordinary (n[sub o]) and extraordinary (n[sub e]) refractive indices of Al[sub x]Ga[sub 1-x]N films, grown by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) and metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) on sapphire, at several discrete wavelengths from 442 nm to 1064 nm. In addition, spectroscopic transmittance and reflectance, correlated with the prism coupling results, were used to measure n[sub o] as a continuous function of wavelength between the band gap of each sample (255 nm to 364 nm, depending on Al fraction) and 2500 nm. The Al mole fractions (x), determined by energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS), were x=0.144, 0.234, 0.279, 0.363, 0.593, and 0.657 for the HVPE-grown samples, and x=0.000, 0.419, 0.507, 0.618, 0.660, and 0.666 for the MOCVD-grown samples. The maximum standard uncertainty in the EDS-determined value of x was ±0.02. The maximum standard uncertainty in the refractive indices measured by prism coupling was ±0.005 and a one-Sellmeier-term equation was adequate to fit the wavelength dependence of n[sub e] from 442 nm to 1064 nm. Due to the spectral proximity of the absorption edge, the wavelength dependence of n[sub o] measured by spectroscopic transmittance/reflectance (correlated with the prism-coupling results), from the band gap of each sample to 2500 nm, was fit with a two-Sellmeier-term equation. © 2003 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recombination dynamics of localized excitons in the best quality strained cubic In[sub x]Ga[sub 1-x]N/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) grown on 3C-SiC (001) were studied as functions of InN mole fraction x and temperature T. The MQWs exhibited large Stokes-type shifts although the full width at half maximum of the photoluminescence (PL) peaks being 80-120 meV is 100-300 meV smaller than those reported previously. Time-resolved PL signal showed stretched exponential decay and spectral redshift with time after excitation up to 300 K. These results are fingerprints that the spontaneous emission is due to the radiative recombination of excitons localized in disordered quantum nanostructures forming extended and localized states. Effective localization depth increased with the increase in x, which gave rise to fast exciton localization. However, nonradiative lifetime in the free states decreased more rapidly with the increase in x and T, giving the emission efficiency maximum at particular x around 0.1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have studied the structural and optical properties of a series of (In,Ga)/GaN multiple quantum wells with identical thicknesses but varied In content grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. Careful choice of the growth parameters returns samples with smooth and abrupt interfaces. The shift of the photoluminescence transition energy with externally applied biaxial tension was investigated. We observed a redshift for small In contents while a blueshift was detected for higher In contents. This result is in qualitative agreement with self-consistent band profile calculations taking into account both band gap deformation potentials and piezoelectric polarization charges in these structures. However, the reduction of the polarization induced quantum-confined Stark effect is well in excess of that conventionally calculated for this material system. We attribute this observation to a substantial deviation of the piezoelectric polarization constants of strained layers from those calculated for unstrained material. This finding is shown to be in agreement with recent calculations of the piezoelectric polarization charges for biaxially strained (Al,Ga,In)N layers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]