Colin J. Humphreys

Prospects of III-nitride optoelectronics grown on Si

The use of III-nitride-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is now widespread in applications such as indicator lamps, display panels, backlighting for liquid-crystal display TVs and computer screens, traffic lights, etc. To meet the huge market demand and lower the manufacturing cost, the LED industry is moving fast from 2 inch to 4 inch and recently to 6 inch wafer sizes. Although Al2O3 (sapphire) and SiC remain the dominant substrate materials for the epitaxy of nitride LEDs, the use of large Si substrates attracts great interest because Si wafers are readily available in large diameters at low cost. In addition, such wafers are compatible with existing processing lines for 6 inch and larger wafers commonly used in the electronics industry. During the last decade, much exciting progress has been achieved in improving the performance of GaN-on-Si devices. In this contribution, the status and prospects of III-nitride optoelectronics grown on Si substrates are reviewed. The issues involved in the growth of GaN-based LED structures on Si and possible solutions are outlined, together with a brief introduction to some novel in situ and ex situ monitoring/characterization tools, which are especially useful for the growth of GaN-on-Si structures.

Characteristics and applications of micro-pixelated GaN-based light emitting diodes on Si substrates

Using a GaN-based light emitting diode (LED) epitaxial structure grown on Si, individually addressable 10u2009×u200910 micro-pixelated LED (μLED) arrays with pixel diameters of 45u2009μm and peak emission at ∼470u2009nm have been demonstrated. The electrical and optical properties of these μLEDs were compared with those of broad-area LEDs fabricated from the same epistructure. The μLEDs can sustain a much higher current density, up to 6.6u2009kA/cm2, before thermal rollover. Also, the fabricated μLEDs show good pixel-to-pixel uniformity, which demonstrates potential for low-cost micro-displays. Furthermore, these μLEDs demonstrate a high electrical-to-optical modulation bandwidth of up to ∼270u2009MHz and are suitable for visible light communication at data transmission rate up to 400 Mbit/s. The electrical-to-optical modulation bandwidth of the μLEDs increases rapidly with injection currents less than ∼6u2009mA, temporarily saturates at injection currents of ∼6 to ∼35u2009mA, and gradually increases again with injection currents up to 110u2009mA. Carrier density dependent recombination processes are responsible for the bandwidth increase at low current, the resistance-capacitance product determines the modulation bandwidth in the saturation region, and self-heating, which changes series resistance of μLEDs, may cause a further bandwidth increase at high current.

The impact of gross well width fluctuations on the efficiency of GaN-based light emitting diodes

Photoluminescence and electroluminescence measurements on InGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) structures and light emitting diodes suggest that QWs with gross fluctuations in width (formed when, during growth, the InGaN is exposed unprotected to high temperatures) give higher room temperature quantum efficiencies than continuous QWs. The efficiency does not depend on the growth temperature of the GaN barriers. Temperature-dependent electroluminescence measurements suggest that the higher efficiency results from higher activation energies for defect-related non-radiative recombination in QW samples with gaps. At high currents the maximum quantum efficiency is similar for all samples, indicating the droop term is not dependent on QW morphology.

Structural, electronic and optical properties of m-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum wells: Insights from experiment and atomistic theory

In this paper we present a detailed analysis of the structural, electronic, and optical properties of an

Tunable optoelectronic and ferroelectric properties in Sc-based III-nitrides

m

The nature of carrier localisation in polar and nonpolar InGaN/GaN quantum wells

-plane (In,Ga)N/GaN quantum well structure grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy. The sample has been structurally characterized by x-ray diffraction, scanning transmission electron microscopy, and 3D atom probe tomography. The optical properties of the sample have been studied by photoluminescence (PL), time-resolved PL spectroscopy, and polarized PL excitation spectroscopy. The PL spectrum consisted of a very broad PL line with a high degree of optical linear polarization. To understand the optical properties we have performed atomistic tight-binding calculations, and based on our initial atom probe tomography data, the model includes the effects of strain and built-in field variations arising from random alloy fluctuations. Furthermore, we included Coulomb effects in the calculations. Our microscopic theoretical description reveals strong hole wave function localization effects due to random alloy fluctuations, resulting in strong variations in ground state energies and consequently the corresponding transition energies. This is consistent with the experimentally observed broad PL peak. Furthermore, when including Coulomb contributions in the calculations we find strong exciton localization effects which explain the form of the PL decay transients. Additionally, the theoretical results confirm the experimentally observed high degree of optical linear polarization. Overall, the theoretical data are in very good agreement with the experimental findings, highlighting the strong impact of the microscopic alloy structure on the optoelectronic properties of these systems.

Segregation of in to dislocations in InGaN

Sc-based III-nitride alloys were studied using density functional theory with special quasi-random structure methodology. ScxAl1−xN and ScxGa1−xN alloys are found to be stable in hexagonal phases up to xu2009≈u20090.56 and xu2009≈u20090.66, respectively, above which rock-salt structures are more stable. Epitaxial strain stabilization can prevent spinodal decomposition up to xu2009≈u20090.4 (ScxAl1−xN on AlN or GaN) and xu2009=u20090.27 (ScxGa1−xN on GaN). The increase in Sc content expands the in-plane lattice parameter of ScxAl1−xN and ScxGa1−xN alloys, leads to composition- and strain-tunable band gaps and polarization, and ultimately introduces ferroelectric functionality in ScxGa1−xN at xu2009≈u20090.625. A modified Becke-Johnson exchange-correlation potential was applied to study the electronic structures, which yielded band gaps comparable to those from hybrid functional calculations, yet in a much shorter computational time. The alloys were found to retain wide band gaps, which stay direct up to xu2009=u20090.25 (ScxAl1−xN) and xu2009=u20090.5 (ScxGa1−x...

High-Speed Substrate-Emitting Micro-Light-Emitting Diodes for Applications Requiring High Radiance

In this paper, we compare and contrast the experimental data and the theoretical predictions of the low temperature optical properties of polar and nonpolar InGaN/GaN quantum well structures. In both types of structure, the optical properties at low temperatures are governed by the effects of carrier localisation. In polar structures, the effect of the in-built electric field leads to electrons being mainly localised at well width fluctuations, whereas holes are localised at regions within the quantum wells, where the random In distribution leads to local minima in potential energy. This leads to a system of independently localised electrons and holes. In nonpolar quantum wells, the nature of the hole localisation is essentially the same as the polar case but the electrons are now coulombically bound to the holes forming localised excitons. These localisation mechanisms are compatible with the large photoluminescence linewidths of the polar and nonpolar quantum wells as well as the different time scales and form of the radiative recombination decay curves.

The impact of trench defects in InGaN/GaN light emitting diodes and implications for the “green gap” problem

Dislocations are one-dimensional topological defects that occur frequently in functional thin film materials and that are known to degrade the performance of InxGa1-xN-based optoelectronic devices. Here, we show that large local deviations in alloy composition and atomic structure are expected to occur in and around dislocation cores in InxGa(1-x)N alloy thin films. We present energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy data supporting this result. The methods presented here are also widely applicable for predicting composition fluctuations associated with strain fields in other inorganic functional material thin films.

The microstructure of non-polar a-plane (11 2¯0) InGaN quantum wells

InGaN-based micro-light-emitting diodes (µ-LEDs) emitting at 470 nm and composed of micropixels each with controlled shaping achieves directed light output with an angular full width at half maximum of 48°. The reflected light from the mesa sidewalls is azimuthally polarized. The small signal bandwidth of an individual µ-LED is >500 MHz. A cluster of 14 µ-LEDs is used to achieve a large signal data transfer rate of 500 Mbps in a form which is compatible with communication over plastic optical fibre.