C.-H. Hong

Enhanced light output from aligned micropit InGaN-based light emitting diodes using wet-etch sapphire patterning

The authors have demonstrated an effective method to obtain high light output power of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by simultaneous enhancement of internal quantum efficiency and light extraction efficiency. Micropit InGaN∕GaN LEDs were fabricated on hexagonal-shaped GaN template through wet-etched substrate patterning. The result indicated that under optimized growth condition of high temperature GaN template, micropits could be formed and distributed in an aligned manner by growing on wet-etch patterned sapphire substrate. The LED structures showed superior optical output power, which directly resulted from not only effective elimination of threading dislocation of the epitaxial layers but also significant increase in light extraction efficiency via the inclined facets of aligned micropits.

Electron capture behaviors of deep level traps in unintentionally doped and intentionally doped n-type GaN

In n-type GaN films grown on sapphire substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition such as unintentionally GaN and intentionally Si-doped GaN and In-doped GaN, the electron capture behaviors were investigated by deep level transient spectroscopy with various filling pulse durations. Two distinct deep levels E1 and E2 were typically observed in unintentionally doped n-type GaN. After optimized growth of undoped GaN, deep level E1 disappears. With increasing Si doping, the trap concentration of deep level E2 is increased. However, In doping in n-type GaN growth was found to suppress the formation of deep level E2. The electrons captured at the traps E1 and E2 were found to depend logarithmically on the duration time of the filling pulse. From an analysis of a model involving barrier-limited capture rate, it can be concluded that deep level E1 is associated with linear line defects along dislocation cores while deep level E2 is related to point defects.

Spatially resolved photoluminescence in InGaN/GaN quantum wells by near-field scanning optical microscopy

Spatially and spectrally resolved photoluminescence (PL) from InGaN/GaN quantum wells is obtained using near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM). Samples displaying high macroscopic PL intensity revealed nonuniform intensity and linewidth but nearly uniform peak position. It suggests that the contrast in the NSOM image reflects nonuniform distribution of dislocations or defects which act as nonradiative recombination centers. The formation of quantum dots with size of 30±25 nm and their size-dependent interaction with dislocations were observed in plan-view transmission electron microscopy. It is likely that the high luminescence efficiency is due to the efficient localization of excitons in high-density quantum dots located in regions with fewer dislocations.

Conductive layer near the GaN/sapphire interface and its effect on electron transport in unintentionally doped n-type GaN epilayers

Temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements on unintentionally doped n-type GaN epilayers show that, above room temperature, the Hall-mobility values of different samples vary parallel with each other with temperature. We demonstrate that this anomaly is mainly due to a conductive layer near the GaN/sapphire interface for thin samples with low carrier density. Through trapping electrons, threading edge dislocations (TEDs) debilitate the epilayer contribution in a two-layer mixed conduction model involving the epilayer and the near-interface layer. The trapping may, in part, explain low mobility and anomalous transport in pure GaN layers. Scattering by TEDs is important only at low temperatures.

Spatial variation of photoluminescence and related defects in InGaN/GaN quantum wells

Spatially and spectrally resolved photoluminescence of InGaN/GaN quantum wells grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition is studied with near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). High-spatial-resolution NSOM images show bright blue quantum well emission around V defects and yellow emission inside the defects. TEM data suggest that the spatial distribution of blue luminescence is partly due to dislocation gettering by V defects. The yellow emission is attributed to the Ga vacancy-impurity complexes trapped inside V defects.

Influence of the quantum-well shape on the light emission characteristics of InGaN/GaN quantum-well structures and light-emitting diodes

Structural and optical properties of various shapes of quantum wells (QWs), including rectangular, triangular, trapezoidal, and polygonal ones are investigated. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements show that the highest light emission efficiency and the best reproducibility in the intensity and wavelength are obtained from trapezoidal QWs. The temperature dependence of PL spectra indicates the more localized nature of excitons in the trapezoidal QWs. A plan-view transmission electron microscopy shows that quantum dots (QDs) are formed inside the dislocation loop in trapezoidal QWs. The distribution of QDs in size and composition becomes more uniform with trapezoidal QWs than with rectangular QWs, leading to superior light-emission characteristics. It is suggested that QD engineering and dislocation control are possible, to some extent, by the modulation of the QW shape in InGaN/GaN-based light-emitting devices.

High efficiency GaN-based light-emitting diodes fabricated on dielectric mask-embedded structures

We report on the enhanced quantum efficiency of GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) fabricated on inverted hexagonal pyramid dielectric mask (IHPDM)-embedded structure. The ray-tracing calculation showed that the extraction efficiency of LEDs fabricated on IHPDM-embedded structure could be enhanced up to 56%. Compared to the reference, the n-GaN template grown on IHPDM-embedded structure also showed a reduction in the dislocation density by 57%, leading to an increase in photoluminescence intensity by 82%. The LED fabricated on IHPDM-embedded structure exhibited a reduction in the forward leakage current by one order of magnitude (<1.5 V) and an enhancement in the output power by 41%.

Effects of growth interruption on the optical and the structural properties of InGaN/GaN quantum wells grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

Effects of growth interruption on the optical and the structural properties of InGaN/GaN quantum wells were investigated by using photoluminescence, transmission electron microscopy, optical microscopy, and high resolution x-ray diffraction. The InxGa1−xN/GaN (x>0.2) quantum wells used in this study were grown on c-plane sapphire by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The interruption was carried out by closing the group-III metalorganic sources before and after the growths of the InGaN quantum well layers. The transmission electron microscopy images show that with increasing interruption time, the quantum-dot-like regions and well thickness decreased due to indium reevaporation or the thermal etching effect. As a result the photoluminescence peak position was blueshifted and the intensity was reduced. Temperature- and excitation-power-dependent photoluminescence spectra support the results of transmission electron microscopy measurements. The sizes and the number of V defects did not differ wit...

Effect of barrier growth temperature on morphological evolution of green InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well heterostructures

Surface morphology of green InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) on a sapphire substrate with various high temperature grown GaN barriers has been evaluated. Keeping the InGaN well growth temperature constant at 740 °C, a series of MQWs were grown with GaN barrier temperatures varied up to 910 °C. GaN barriers grown below 800 °C lead to the generation of a high density of V-defects and inclusions embedded within V-defects as observed by atomic force microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy and cathodoluminescence (CL) studies revealed that the embedded inclusions are of two kinds: one of them appears as bright spots in CL mapping while the other appears as the surrounding region. Temperature ramping and subsequent interruption for GaN barrier growth suppresses both kinds of inclusion defects and also significantly reduces the V-defect density. An inclusion-free smooth surface is obtained for green emitting InGaN/GaN MQWs with the GaN barrier grown at 910 °C.

Hole transport in Mg-doped GaN epilayers grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

A two-band model involving the heavy- and light-hole bands was adopted to analyze the temperature-dependent Hall effect measured on Mg-doped p-type GaN epilayers. At 300 K, the hole concentration was determined to be nearly twice the Hall concentration estimated from the measured Hall coefficient, meanwhile the Hall mobility of heavy hole turned out to be only half of the measured one. It is shown that the scattering by space charge and acoustic deformation potential is anomalously enhanced in Mg-doped GaN, and that the light hole affects conspicuously the observed transport parameters.