Changqing Chen

Effect of the surface-plasmon–exciton coupling and charge transfer process on the photoluminescence of metal–semiconductor nanostructures

The effect of direct metal coating on the photoluminescence (PL) properties of ZnO nanorods (NRs) has been investigated in detail in this work. The direct coating of Ag nanoparticles (NPs) induces remarkable enhancement of the surface exciton (SX) emissions from the ZnO NRs. Meanwhile, the charge transfer process between ZnO and Ag also leads to notable increment of blue and violet emissions from Zn interstitial defects. A thin SiO2 blocking layer inserted between the ZnO and Ag has been demonstrated to be able to efficiently suppress the defect emission enhancement caused by the direct contact of metal-semiconductor, without weakening the surface-plasmon-exciton coupling effect. A theoretical model considering the type of contacts formed between metals, ZnO and blocking layer is proposed to interpret the change of the PL spectra.

Advantages of AlGaN-Based 310-nm UV Light-Emitting Diodes With Al Content Graded AlGaN Electron Blocking Layers

In order to improve the performance of deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs), the effects of different electron blocking layers (EBLs) on the performance of AlxGa1-xN-based deep UV LEDs at 310 nm have been studied through a numerical simulation. The simulation results show that the adoption of EBLs is critical to improve the device performance. In comparison with a conventional structure using EBL with constant Al composition (0.7), the device structure with an Al-content graded AlxGa1-xN (from 0.9 to 0.4 in the growth direction) EBL possesses numerous advantages such as lower working voltage, higher internal quantum efficiency, and less efficiency droop under high-current injection. By detailedly analyzing the profiles of energy band diagrams, distributions of carrier concentration, and electron current density, the advantages of Al-content graded AlxGa1-xN EBL are attributed to the resulting lower resistivity, higher barrier for electron leakage, and simultaneously reduced barrier for hole injection compared with the conventional EBL with constant Al composition.

Terahertz intersubband transition in GaN/AlGaN step quantum well

The influences of polarization and structure parameters on the intersubband transition frequency within terahertz (THz) range and oscillator strength in GaN/AlGaN step quantum well have been investigated by solving Schrodinger and Poisson equations self-consistently. The results show that the Al mole compositions of step quantum well and space barrier have a significant effect on the THz intersubband transition frequency. A specific phenomenon is found that the minimum energy spacing between the ground state and first excited state can be achieved as the Al mole composition of space barrier is about twice of that of step well. In particular, an intersubband transition with energy of 19.8 meV (4.83 THz) can be obtained with specifically designed parameters. This specific phenomenon still exists in a wide range of step well width and a narrow range of well width with less than 3% fluctuation of the Al mole composition of barrier. In addition, oscillator strength and dipole matrix element versus the widths o...

The Advantages of AlGaN-Based UV-LEDs Inserted With a p-AlGaN Layer Between the EBL and Active Region

The advantages of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (LEDs) inserted with a p-AlGaN layer, whose Al mole composition is less than that of the last barrier, between the last barrier and the electron blocking layer have been investigated by using the Crosslight APSYS programs. The results show that the output power and the internal quantum efficiency of the proposed LEDs are improved. Furthermore, the efficiency droop is also mitigated effectively. Based on the analysis of electrical and optical characteristics, these improvements are mainly attributed to the relatively higher effective barrier height against the escape of electrons and an increased hole concentration in the quantum wells by inserting a hole reservoir near the active region. In addition, the optimized Al mole composition of this inserted layer has been also studied in detail, and the optimized Al mole composition has been achieved.

Tunability of intersubband transition wavelength in the atmospheric window in AlGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells grown on different AlGaN templates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

The properties of intersubband transition in AlGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) grown on different AlGaN templates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition are investigated. The strain states of GaN wells are studied by Raman spectra and reciprocal space mappings, which shows that the GaN wells are compressively strained and the compressive strain is increased when the Al mole composition is varied from 0 to 0.3. The Fourier transform infrared spectrometer results show that the intersubband transition wavelength in the AlGaN/GaN MQWs can be tuned from 5.14 μm to 4.65 μm when the Al mole composition of the AlGaN template is increased. The results can be attributed to the quantum confined Stark effect.

Effect of growth temperature of an AlN intermediate layer on the growth mode of AlN grown by MOCVD

High-temperature AlN (HT-AlN) films inserted with a thin AlN intermediate layer were grown on c-sapphire directly by MOCVD, and the influence of growth temperature of the AlN intermediate layer on the growth mode of HT-AlN was investigated. The results showed that with the temperature of the AlN intermediate layer increasing from 470 to 670 °C, the growth mode was changed from three-dimensional (3D) growth to two-dimensional (2D) growth. However, when the temperature was further increased to 870 °C, the growth mode was changed into 3D growth again. This suggested that the thin AlN intermediate layer could alter the growth mode of the HT-AlN film by varying the growth temperature, which provides a possible way to improve the morphology and quality of AlN films. The reasons responsible for this phenomenon were probed by Raman spectral, reciprocal space map and growth evolutions of AlN, and a model was developed to explain the effects of IM-AlN on the growth mode of HT-AlN.

Nonpolar a-plane ZnO films grown on GaN/sapphire templates with SiNx interlayer by pulsed laser deposition

Nonpolar a-plane ZnO films were deposited for the first time on nearly lattice-matched a-plane GaN templates using an in situ SiNx interlayer by the pulsed laser deposition method. The symmetric and asymmetric reciprocal space mappings reveal the broadening effects of the reciprocal lattice points and the residual biaxial in-plane tensile strain of a-plane ZnO to be 0.335% and 0.055% along the [0 0 0 1] c-axis and p-axis, respectively. The photoluminescence spectrum at 85 K is dominated by neutral donor-bound excitons and free-electron-to-bound (e-A0) emissions; relatively intense LO-phonon replicas of (e-A0) have also been observed in a-plane ZnO. Temperature-dependent PL spectra have also been discussed to identify the origin of the emission peaks. Up to fourth A1(LO) phonon mode can be observed to be enhanced significantly from the resonant Raman spectrum.

Double-resonance enhanced intersubband second-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities in GaN/AlGaN step quantum wells

Second-order nonlinear optical susceptibilities for second harmonic generation (SHG) associated with intersubband transitions in GaN/AlGaN single quantum well and step quantum well have been studied theoretically by solving Schrödinger and Poisson equations self-consistently. The calculated results suggest that due to the very large polarization-induced field in the quantum well, the potential profile becomes asymmetrical, leading to large second-order susceptibilities. A high value about 4 × 10-7 m/V can be obtained in single quantum well structure. Furthermore, by adopting step quantum well structure to increase the asymmetry degree of the potential profile and manipulate the energy levels for double-resonance, a significant enhancement of second-order susceptibility can occur in step quantum well. Specifically, the susceptibility can be as large as 4 × 10-6 m/V with structure optimization, about an order of magnitude greater than that in single quantum well. The results indicate that nonlinear optical elements based on GaN/AlGaN step quantum wells are very promising for SHG in a wide range of wavelengths from telecommunication to mid-infrared, especially effective in longer wavelength.

Anisotropic optical polarization dependence on internal strain in AlGaN epilayer grown on Al x Ga1−x N templates

Anisotropic optical polarization of AlGaN has been one of the major challenges responsible for the poor efficiency of AlGaN-based ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs). In this work, we experimentally investigated the effect of internal strain on the optical polarization of AlGaN epilayers which were pseudomorphically grown on Al x Ga1?x N templates with Al composition changing from 0.1 to 0.42. High-resolution x-ray diffraction and reciprocal space mapping were conducted to determine the crystal quality and strain status. Polarization-dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurement was performed to study the degree of polarization (DOP) of light emission from lateral facet of the AlGaN epilayer. The result showed that the DOP increased from???0.69 to???0.24 with the in-plane strain changing from tensile status (1.19%) to compressive status (?0.70%) and it exhibited a strong dependence of the DOP on the strain. These results demonstrated that the compressive in-plane strain could facilitate TE mode emission from AlGaN, which providing a potential way to enhance the surface light emission of AlGaN-based UV LEDs via strain management of the active region.

Efficient optical coupling in AlGaN/GaN quantum well infrared photodetector via quasi-one-dimensional gold grating

In this letter, a new kind of grating, quasi-one-dimensional gold grating, has been proposed to enhance the optical coupling in AlGaN/GaN quantum well infrared photodetector (QWIP). The electric field distribution, current density and energy flow are analyzed by an algorithm of finite element method (FEM). Significantly enhanced electric field component E(z) perpendicular to multiple quantum wells (MQWs) is explained by introducing the resonant coupling of surface plasmon polariton (SPP) and localized surface plasmon (LSP). The |E(z)|(2) in MQWs reaches 0.85 (V/m(2) when the electric field intensity (|E(0)|(2)) of normal incidence is 1 (V/m(2) at 4.65 μm, showing 2 times and 1.3 times increase compared with that obtained via a one-dimensional gold grating and a two-dimensional gold grating, respectively. The results confirm that the quasi-one-dimensional gold grating provides more plasma excitation source and higher charge density with structure optimization, resulting in a high optical coupling efficiency of 85% in quantum well region.