Daniel L. Becerra

High-power low-droop violet semipolar (303¯1¯) InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes with thick active layer design

Devices grown on nonpolar and semipolar planes of GaN offer key performance advantages over devices grown on the conventional c-plane, including reduced polarization fields. This allows for a wider design space on semipolar planes for light emitting diodes (LEDs) to address the problem of efficiency droop at high current densities. LED structures with very thick (10–100 nm) InGaN single-quantum-well/double heterostructure active regions were grown using conventional metal organic chemical vapor deposition on semipolar (303¯1¯) free-standing GaN substrates and processed and packaged using conventional techniques. Simulated band diagrams showed reduced polarization fields on the (303¯1¯) plane. The calculated critical thickness for misfit dislocation formation is higher on the (303¯1¯) plane than on other semipolar planes, such as (202¯1¯), allowing for thicker active regions than our previous work to further reduce droop. The higher critical thickness was confirmed with defect characterization via cathodol...

High spatial uniformity of photoluminescence spectra in semipolar (202¯1) plane InGaN/GaN quantum wells

Scanning near-field optical spectroscopy was applied to study spatial variations of emission spectra at room temperature in semipolar (20 (2) over bar1) InxGa(1-x)N/GaN single quantum wells (QWs) f ...

Impact of carrier localization on radiative recombination times in semipolar (202¯1) plane InGaN/GaN quantum wells

Semipolar (20 (2) over bar1) plane In,Ga1-xN quantum wells (QWs) of varying alloy composition were studied by time-resolved photoluminescence. A large difference in effective radiative lifetimes. f ...

Continuous-wave operation of a

We demonstrated selective and controllable undercut etching of the InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) active region of a laser diode (LD) structure by photoelectrochemical etching. This technique was used to fabricate current aperture edge-emitting blue laser diodes (CA-LDs), whose performance was compared with that of shallow-etched ridge LDs with a nominally identical epitaxial structure. The threshold current density, threshold voltage, peak output power, and series resistance for the CA-LD (shallow-etched LD) with a 2.5-µm-wide active region were 4.4 (8.1) kA/cm2, 6.1 (7.7) V, 96.5 (63.5) mW, and 4.7 (6.0) Ω under pulsed conditions and before facet coating, respectively.

(20\bar{2}\bar{1})

We demonstrate a vertical (<1° departure) and smooth (2.0 nm root mean square line-edge roughness (LER)) etch by chemically assisted Ar ion beam etching (CAIBE) in Cl2 chemistry that is suitable for forming laser diode (LD) facets on nonpolar and semipolar oriented III-nitride devices. The etch profiles were achieved with photoresist masks and optimized CAIBE chamber conditions including the platen tilt angle and Cl2 flow rate. Co-loaded studies showed similar etch rates of ~60 nm min−1 for and m-plane orientations. The etched surfaces of LD facets on these orientations are chemically dissimilar (Ga-rich versus N-rich), but were visually indistinguishable, thus confirming the negligible orientation dependence of the etch. Continuous-wave blue LDs were fabricated on the semipolar plane to compare CAIBE and reactive ion etch (RIE) facet processes. The CAIBE process resulted in LDs with lower threshold current densities due to reduced parasitic mirror loss compared with the RIE process. The LER, degree of verticality, and model of the 1D vertical laser mode were used to calculate a maximum uncoated facet reflection of 17% (94% of the nominal) for the CAIBE facet. The results demonstrate the suitability of CAIBE for forming high quality facets for high performance nonpolar and semipolar III-N LDs.

InGaN laser diode with a photoelectrochemically etched current aperture

The dynamic characteristics of III-nitride multi-quantum well laser diodes (LDs) emitting at 410 nm were investigated. LDs were grown on semipolar (202¯1¯) bulk GaN substrates and fabricated into devices with cavity lengths ranging from 900 nm to 1800 nm. A 3-dB bandwidth of 5 GHz and 5 Gbit/s direct modulation with on-off keying were demonstrated, which were limited by the bandwidth of the photodetector used for the measurements. The differential gain of the LDs was determined to be 2.5 ± 0.5 × 10−16 cm2 by comparing the slope efficiency for different cavity lengths. Analysis of the frequency response showed that the K-factor, the gain compression factor, and the intrinsic maximum bandwidth were 0.33 ns, 7.4 × 10−17 cm3, and 27 GHz, respectively.

Chemically assisted ion beam etching of laser diode facets on nonpolar and semipolar orientations of GaN

Continuous-wave blue semipolar (202¯1¯) III-nitride laser diodes were fabricated with highly vertical, smooth, and uniform mirror facets produced by chemically assisted ion beam etching. Uniform mirror facets are a requirement for accurate experimental determination of internal laser parameters, including internal loss and injection efficiency, which were determined to be 9 cm−1 and 73%, respectively, using the cavity length dependent method. The cavity length of the uncoated devices was varied from 900 μm to 1800 μm, with threshold current densities ranging from 3 kA/cm2 to 9 kA/cm2 and threshold voltages ranging from 5.5 V to 7 V. The experimentally determined internal loss was found to be in good agreement with a calculated value of 9.5 cm−1 using a 1D mode solver. The loss in each layer was calculated and in light of the analysis several modifications to the laser design are proposed.

Dynamic characteristics of 410 nm semipolar (202¯1¯) III-nitride laser diodes with a modulation bandwidth of over 5 GHz

Scanning near-field photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy has been applied to green emitting (202¯1) plane InGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) structures with 1, 5 and 10 wells to reveal the influence of the number of QWs on PL properties and their spatial variation. The data show no additional broadening or shift of the PL spectra related to the increase of the number of QWs. The QWs in the multiple QW structures are found to be nearly identical and the well width and/or alloy composition fluctuations uncorrelated. In spite that the thickness of the 10 QW structure is over the critical, no PL changes related to a structural relaxation have been detected.

Measurement and analysis of internal loss and injection efficiency for continuous-wave blue semipolar (202¯1¯) III-nitride laser diodes with chemically assisted ion beam etched facets

Band potential fluctuations in InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) induce carrier localization that affects emission linewidth and carrier recombination rate. Alloy composition and well width variations are considered as main sources of the potential fluctuations and are often treated indiscriminately. However, their impact on the emission linewidth and the carrier lifetimes may be different. Besides, the impact of the QW width fluctuations on the linewidth could possibly be reduced via optimization of growth, while random alloy composition fluctuations can hardly be avoided. In this work, we have studied these effects in green-emitting semipolar (20-21) plane InGaN/GaN single QW structures of different well widths (2, 4 and 6 nm) and in structures with different number of QWs (1, 5 and 10). Experiments have been performed by scanning near-field photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy. It has been found that the well width fluctuations, compared to the InGaN alloy composition variations, play a negligible role in defining the PL linewidth. In multiple QW structures, the alloy composition fluctuations are spatially uncorrelated between the wells. Despite that the 10 QW structure exceeds the critical thickness, no PL linewidth changes related to a structural relaxation have been detected. On the other hand, the well width fluctuations have a large impact on the recombination times. In-plane electric fields, caused by the nonplanarity of QW interfaces, separate electrons and holes into different potential minima increasing the lifetimes in wide QWs.

Properties of near-field photoluminescence in green emitting single and multiple semipolar (202¯1) plane InGaN/GaN quantum wells

Scanning near-field photoluminescence spectroscopy has been applied to distinguish the relevance of quantum well (QW) alloy composition and well width fluctuations on emission linewidth and recombination times in semipolar (202¯1) plane InGaN QWs. It has been found that well width fluctuations, compared to variations of InGaN alloy composition, play a negligible role in defining the photoluminescence linewidth. However, the well width strongly affects the recombination times. Prolonged radiative and nonradiative carrier lifetimes in wide QWs have been attributed to electron and hole separation by in-plane electric fields caused by nonplanarity of QW interfaces.