C. Edmunds

Repeatable low-temperature negative-differential resistance from Al0.18Ga0.82N/GaN resonant tunneling diodes grown by molecular-beam epitaxy on free-standing GaN substrates

Low-aluminum composition AlGaN/GaN double-barrier resonant tunneling structures were grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam-epitaxy on free-standing c-plane GaN substrates grown by hydride-vapor phase epitaxy. Clear, exactly reproducible, negative-differential resistance signatures were observed from 4 × 4 μm2 devices at 1.5 V and 1.7 V at 77 K. The relatively small value of the maximum peak-to-valley ratio (1.03) and the area dependence of the electrical characteristics suggest that charge transport is affected by leakage paths through dislocations. However, the reproducibility of the data indicates that electrical traps play no significant role in the charge transport in resonant tunneling diodes grown by molecular-beam-epitaxy under Ga-rich conditions on free-standing GaN substrates.

Terahertz intersubband absorption in non-polar m-plane AlGaN/GaN quantum wells

We demonstrate THz intersubband absorption (15.6–26.1 meV) in m-plane AlGaN/GaN quantum wells. We find a trend of decreasing peak energy with increasing quantum well width, in agreement with theoretical expectations. However, a blue-shift of the transition energy of up to 14 meV was observed relative to the calculated values. This blue-shift is shown to decrease with decreasing charge density and is, therefore, attributed to many-body effects. Furthermore, a ∼40% reduction in the linewidth (from roughly 8 to 5 meV) was obtained by reducing the total sheet density and inserting undoped AlGaN layers that separate the wavefunctions from the ionized impurities in the barriers.

Improvement of near-infrared absorption linewidth in AlGaN/GaN superlattices by optimization of delta-doping location

We report a systematic study of the near-infrared intersubband absorption in AlGaN/GaN superlattices grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy as a function of Si-doping profile with and without δ-doping. The transition energies are in agreement with theoretical calculations including many-body effects. A dramatic reduction of the intersubband absorption linewidth is observed when the δ-doping is placed at the end of the quantum well. This reduction is attributed to the improvement of interface roughness. The linewidth dependence on interface roughness is well reproduced by a model that considers the distribution of well widths measured with transmission electron microscopy.

Surface morphology evolution of m-plane (11¯00) GaN during molecular beam epitaxy growth: Impact of Ga/N ratio, miscut direction, and growth temperature

We present a systematic study of morphology evolution of [11¯00] m-plane GaN grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on free-standing m-plane substrates with small miscut angles towards the –c [0001¯] and +c [0001] directions under various gallium to nitrogen (Ga/N) ratios at substrate temperatures T = 720 °C and T = 740 °C. The miscut direction, Ga/N ratio, and growth temperature are all shown to have a dramatic impact on morphology. The observed dependence on miscut direction supports the notion of strong anisotropy in the gallium adatom diffusion barrier and growth kinetics. We demonstrate that precise control of Ga/N ratio and substrate temperature yields atomically smooth morphology on substrates oriented towards +c [0001] as well as the more commonly studied –c [0001¯] miscut substrates.

Temperature-dependence of negative differential resistance in GaN/AlGaN resonant tunneling structures

We report a systematical study of the temperature-dependence of negative deferential resistance (NDR) from double-barrier Al0.35Ga0.65N/GaN resonant tunneling diodes grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy on free-standing GaN substrates. The current‐voltage (I‐V) characterization was done in the 6‐300 K temperature range. A clear NDR signature was observed for mesa sizes of 4 × 4 μm 2 at temperatures below 130 K. This suggests that the resonant tunneling is the dominant charge transport mechanism in our devices. (Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

Coherent vertical electron transport and interface roughness effects in AlGaN/GaN intersubband devices

We investigate electron transport in epitaxially grown nitride-based resonant tunneling diodes (RTDs) and superlattice sequential tunneling devices. A density-matrix model is developed, and shown to reproduce the experimentally measured features of the current–voltage curves, with its dephasing terms calculated from semi-classical scattering rates. Lifetime broadening effects are shown to have a significant influence in the experimental data. Additionally, it is shown that the interface roughness geometry has a large effect on current magnitude, peak-to-valley ratios and misalignment features; in some cases eliminating negative differential resistance entirely in RTDs. Sequential tunneling device characteristics are dominated by a parasitic current that is most likely to be caused by dislocations; however, excellent agreement between the simulated and experimentally measured tunnelingcurrent magnitude and alignment bias is demonstrated. This analysis of the effects of scattering lifetimes, contact doping and growth quality on electron transport highlights critical optimization parameters for the development of III–nitride unipolar electronic and optoelectronic devices.

Dramatic enhancement of near-infrared intersubband absorption in c-plane AlInN/GaN superlattices

We report substantial improvement of near-infrared (2–2.6 μm) intersubband absorption in c-plane AlInN/GaN superlattices grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Progress was obtained through optimization of AlInN growth conditions using an AlInN growth rate of 0.9-nm/min at substrate temperature of 550 °C, as well as by judiciously placing the charge into two delta-doping sheets. Structural characterization suggests that AlInN crystal quality is enhanced and interface roughness is reduced. Importantly, near-infrared absorption data indicate that the optical quality of the AlInN/GaN superlattices is now comparable with that of AlN/GaN superlattices designed to exploit near-infrared intersubband transitions.

Quantum band engineering of nitride semiconductors for infrared lasers

The III-nitride semiconductors have been proposed as candidate materials for new quantum cascade lasers in the nearinfrared (1.5-3 μm), and far-infrared (30-60 μm), due to the large conduction-band offset between GaN and Alcontaining alloys (>1 eV), and the large longitudinal optical (LO) phonon energy (90 meV), respectively. The challenges of III-nitride intersubband devices are twofold: material and design related. Due to large electron effective mass, the nitride intersubband materials require the ability to fine-tune the atomic structure at an unprecedented sub-nanometer level. Moreover, the III-N materials exhibit built-in polarization fields that complicate the design of intersubband lasers. This paper presents recent results on c-plane nitride resonant-tunneling diodes that are important for the prospects of farinfrared nitride lasers. We also report near-infrared absorption and photocurrent measurements in nonpolar (m-plane) AlGaN/GaN superlattices.

Intersubband Transitions in Lattice-Matched AlInN/GaN Heterostructures

Intersubband transitions in lattice-matched AlInN/GaN heterostructures grown by molecular-beam epitaxy were studied with infrared absorption, photocurrent and resonant tunneling measurements. Strong near-infrared absorption was observed at room temperature in the technologically relevant 2.1-2.9 µm. The results show the potential of lattice-matched nitrides for near- and far-infrared intersubband devices such as lasers and detectors.

Design considerations for GaN/AlN based unipolar (opto-)electronic devices, and interface quality aspects

We describe the theoretical and experimental studies of GaN/AlGaN based resonant tunnelling diodes, and in particular analyse the effects and typical values of interface roughness, and then discuss the implications of these, realistic material quality parameters on performance of unipolar optoelectronic devices.