Jeffrey S. Flynn

AN OPTICALLY PUMPED GAN-ALGAN VERTICAL CAVITY SURFACE EMITTING LASER

An optically pumped GaN‐based vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is demonstrated. Laser emission near 363 nm is observed at room temperature from the surface of a VCSEL structure optically pumped along a cleaved sample edge by focused light from a nitrogen laser. The VCSEL structure, which was grown on a sapphire substrate by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy, consists of a 10 μm GaN active region sandwiched between 30‐period Al0.40Ga0.60N–Al0.12Ga0.88N Bragg reflectors. At optical pump intensities above ∼2.0 MW/cm2, a narrow (<5 A) laser mode at 363.5 nm emerges from the GaN photoluminescence spectrum. This mode becomes the dominant feature of the spectrum at higher pump powers, and additional modes appear ∼1.3 nm above and below this mode at 362.1 nm and 364.8 nm. The ∼1.3 nm mode spacing corresponds closely with the 1.1 nm spacing predicted from an electromagnetics model of the VCSEL structure.

Comment on "lasing emission from an In0.1Ga0.9N vertical cavity surface emitting laser"

Someya et al.. recently reported [Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 37 (1998) L1424] optically pumped laser operation from an InGaN-based vertical cavity surface emitting laser, which they characterize as the the first unambiguous observation of laser emission by a III–V nitride VCSEL. They claim that our previous report of lasing in a GaN-based vertical cavity laser is attributable to phenomena other than vertical lasing. We argue against the plausibility the authors unsubstantiated alternative explanation for our results, which forms the basis for their claim.

InGaN Double-Heterostructures and Dh-Leds on Hvpe Gan-on-Sapphire Substrates

We report on the growth of InGaN films, and the fabrication and characterization of GaN homojunction LEDs and InGaN double heterostructure (DH) LEDs on HVPE GaNon- sapphire substrates. The use of these substrates facilitates the III-nitrides growth process, as it avoids the use of complicated buffer layers. We have achieved InGaN films with strong and sharp band-to-band photoluminescence (PL) from 370 to 540 nm. Typical In 0.o9Ga0. g9N/GaN DH films had double-crystal XRD FWHM ∼ 300 arcsec, and 400 nm peak PL emission with FWHM ∼ 100 meV. DH-LEDs were fabricated with InGaN layers with various compositions, and produced strong electroluminescence (EL) in the blue and blue/green regions.

Influence of growth temperature on emission efficiency of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells

A comparative study, using time-resolved and CW photoluminescence spectroscopy, of MOVPE grown InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells deposited on HVPE GaN/Sapphire at different growth temperatures was undertaken. It was found that the PL linewidth increased and the peak emission energy decreased as the growth temperature was reduced. Moreover, the sample grown at an intermediate growth temperature exhibited total integrated luminescence intensity much greater than the samples grown at higher or lower growth temperatures. A phenomenological carrier recombination dynamics model based on the competition of quantum well-like radative recombination, spatially localized radiative recombination in potential minima and non-radiative recombination through defects is presented to provide an explanation of the observed emission dynamics and efficiency. In this model, the emission efficiency is determined by the relative area of defects and the number density of localized states in the potential minima, both of which are influenced by the growth temperature. Furthermore, the photon energy dependent lifetimes are well fitted with this model by assuming a Gaussian shape localized states distribution. The localized potential minima are consistent with nanoscale indium rich regions due to indium aggregation.