Christophe A. Hurni

Bulk GaN flip-chip violet light-emitting diodes with optimized efficiency for high-power operation

We report on violet-emitting III-nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on bulk GaN substrates employing a flip-chip architecture. Device performance is optimized for operation at high current density and high temperature, by specific design consideration for the epitaxial layers, extraction efficiency, and electrical injection. The power conversion efficiency reaches a peak value of 84% at 85 °C and remains high at high current density, owing to low current-induced droop and low series resistance.

Indium and impurity incorporation in InGaN films on polar, nonpolar, and semipolar GaN orientations grown by ammonia molecular beam epitaxy

The effects of NH3 flow, group III flux, and substrate growth temperature on indium incorporation and surface morphology have been investigated for bulk InGaN films grown by ammonia molecular beam epitaxy. The incorporation of unintentional impurity elements (H, C, O) in InGaN films was studied as a function of growth temperature for growth on polar (0001) GaN on sapphire templates, nonpolar (101¯0) bulk GaN, and semipolar (112¯2), (202¯1) bulk GaN substrates. Enhanced indium incorporation was observed on both (101¯0) and (202¯1) surfaces relative to c-plane, while reduced indium incorporation was observed on (112¯2) for co-loaded conditions. Indium incorporation was observed to increase with decreasing growth temperature for all planes, while being relatively unaffected by the group III flux rates for a 1:1 Ga:In ratio. Indium incorporation was found to increase at the expense of a decreased growth rate for higher ammonia flows; however, smooth surface morphology was consistently observed for growth on s...

High external quantum efficiency and fill-factor InGaN/GaN heterojunction solar cells grown by NH3-based molecular beam epitaxy

High external quantum efficiency (EQE) p-i-n heterojunction solar cells grown by NH3-based molecular beam epitaxy are presented. EQE values including optical losses are greater than 50% with fill-factors over 72% when illuminated with a 1 sun AM0 spectrum. Optical absorption measurements in conjunction with EQE measurements indicate an internal quantum efficiency greater than 90% for the InGaN absorbing layer. By adjusting the thickness of the top p-type GaN window contact layer, it is shown that the short-wavelength (<365 nm) quantum efficiency is limited by the minority carrier diffusion length in highly Mg-doped p-GaN.

p-n junctions on Ga-face GaN grown by NH3 molecular beam epitaxy with low ideality factors and low reverse currents

A comprehensive analysis of forward and reverse current of Ga-face GaN p-n junctions grown by NH3 molecular beam epitaxy (NH3-MBE) on metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) GaN:Fe on sapphire is presented. NH3-MBE has a great potential for growing low leakage vertical devices due to its nitrogen-rich growth. Diodes with the lowest n-doping of n∼3.5×1017 cm−3 exhibit an extremely low reverse current of 2.6×10−7 A/cm2 at −40 V and an ideality factor of 1.3, which is lower than the state-of-the-art Ga-face p-n junctions grown on sapphire by MOCVD. An explanation for the difficulty for observing low ideality factors in GaN is presented.

Design, fabrication, and performance analysis of GaN vertical electron transistors with a buried p/n junction

The Current Aperture Vertical Electron Transistor (CAVET) combines the high conductivity of the two dimensional electron gas channel at the AlGaN/GaN heterojunction with better field distribution offered by a vertical design. In this work, CAVETs with buried, conductive p-GaN layers as the current blocking layer are reported. The p-GaN layer was regrown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and the subsequent channel regrowth was done by ammonia molecular beam epitaxy to maintain the p-GaN conductivity. Transistors with high ON current (10.9 kA/cm2) and low ON-resistance (0.4 mΩ cm2) are demonstrated. Non-planar selective area regrowth is identified as the limiting factor to transistor breakdown, using planar and non-planar n/p/n structures. Planar n/p/n structures recorded an estimated electric field of 3.1 MV/cm, while non-planar structures showed a much lower breakdown voltage. Lowering the p-GaN regrowth temperature improved breakdown in the non-planar n/p/n structure. Combining high breakdown vol...

Effects of growth temperature on Mg-doped GaN grown by ammonia molecular beam epitaxy

The hole concentration p in Mg-doped GaN films grown by ammonia molecular beam epitaxy depends strongly on the growth temperature TGR. At TGR=760 °C, GaN:Mg films showed a hole concentration of p=1.2 × 1018 cm−3 for [Mg]=4.5×1019 cm−3, while at TGR=840 °C, p=4.4×1016 cm−3 for [Mg]=7×1019 cm−3. Post-growth annealing did not increase p. The sample grown at 760 °C exhibited a low resistivity of 0.7 Ωcm. The mobility for all the samples was around 3−7 cm2/V s. Temperature-dependent Hall measurements and secondary ion mass spectroscopy suggest that the samples grown at TGR>760 °C are compensated by an intrinsic donor rather than hydrogen.

Molecular beam epitaxy of InAlN lattice-matched to GaN with homogeneous composition using ammonia as nitrogen source

InAlN lattice-matched to GaN was grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using ammonia as the nitrogen source. The alloy composition, growth conditions, and strain coherence of the InAlN were verified by high resolution x-ray diffraction ω-2θ scans and reciprocal space maps. Scanning transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy of the InAlN revealed the absence of lateral composition modulation that was observed in the films grown by plasma-assisted MBE. InAlN/AlN/GaN high electron mobility transistors with smooth surfaces were fabricated with electron mobilities exceeding 1600 cm2/Vs and sheet resistances below 244 Ω/sq.

Deep traps in nonpolar m-plane GaN grown by ammonia-based molecular beam epitaxy

Deep level defects in nonpolar m-plane GaN grown by ammonia-based molecular beam epitaxy were characterized using deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) and deep level optical spectroscopy (DLOS) and compared with polar c-plane GaN that was grown simultaneously in the same growth run. Significant differences in both the levels present and their concentrations were observed upon comparison of both growth orientations. DLTS revealed electron traps with activation energies of 0.14 eV, 0.20 eV, and 0.66 eV in the m-plane material, with concentrations that were ∼10−50 × higher than traps of similar activation energies in the c-plane material. Likewise, DLOS measurements showed ∼20 × higher concentrations of both a CN acceptor-like state at EC − 3.26 eV, which correlates with a high background carbon concentration observed by secondary ion mass spectroscopy for the m-plane material [A. Armstrong, A. R. Arehart, B. Moran, S. P. DenBaars, U. K. Mishra, J. S. Speck, and S. A. Ringel, Appl. Phys. Lett. 84, 374 (2...

High light extraction efficiency in bulk-GaN based volumetric violet light-emitting diodes

We report on the light extraction efficiency of III-Nitride violet light-emitting diodes with a volumetric flip-chip architecture. We introduce an accurate optical model to account for light extraction. We fabricate a series of devices with varying optical configurations and fit their measured performance with our model. We show the importance of second-order optical effects like photon recycling and residual surface roughness to account for data. We conclude that our devices reach an extraction efficiency of 89%.

Asymmetric interfacial abruptness in N-polar and Ga-polar GaN/AlN/GaN heterostructures

In this letter, we report on the interfacial abruptness of GaN/AlN/GaN heterostructures with pulsed laser atom probe tomography (APT). The samples were grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) under both metal-rich and N-rich conditions on both Ga-polar (0001) GaN templates and N-polar (0001¯) GaN substrates. An NH3 assisted MBE technique was involved to grow similar Ga-polar and N-polar structures on GaN:Fe substrates and GaN/Al2O3 templates, respectively, for a comparison study. We find in all cases the interface with net positive polarization charge was chemically abrupt, whereas the interface with net negative polarization charge was diffuse. We discuss the implications on device design and performance. These data validate the efficiency of APT in studying interfaces for better performance in devices.