L. W. Sang

Study on the formation of dodecagonal pyramid on nitrogen polar GaN surface etched by hot H3PO4

Hot phosphor acid (H3PO4) etching is presented to form a roughened surface with dodecagonal pyramids on laser lift-off N face GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. A detailed analysis of time evolution of surface morphology is described as a function of etching temperature. The activation energy of the H3PO4 etching process is 1.25 eV, indicating the process is reaction-limited scheme. And it is found that the oblique angle between the facets and the base plane increases as the temperature increases. Thermodynamics and kinetics related factors of the formation mechanism of the dodecagonal pyramid are also discussed. The light output power of a vertical injection light-emitting-diode (LED) with proper roughened surface shows about 2.5 fold increase compared with that of LED without roughened surface.

Reduction in threading dislocation densities in AlN epilayer by introducing a pulsed atomic-layer epitaxial buffer layer

A method of reducing threading dislocation (TD) density in AlN epilayers grown on sapphire substrate is reported. By introducing an AlN buffer layer grown by a pulsed atomic-layer epitaxy method, TDs in epitaxial AlN films were greatly decreased. From transmission electron microscopic images, a clear subinterface was observed between the buffer layer and the subsequently continuous grown AlN epilayer. In the vicinity of the subinterface, the redirection, annihilation, and termination of TDs were observed. The increase in lateral growth rate accounted for TD redirection and annihilation in the AlN epilayer. Strain variation between the two regions resulted in the termination of TDs owing to the dislocation line energy minimization.

Analysis of mass transport mechanism in InGaN epitaxy on ridge shaped selective area growth GaN by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

In this work, the evolution of the InGaN layer growth on the ridge shaped GaN was studied. A mass transport model was presented to simulate the epitaxy process of the InGaN layer. The model consisted of two consecutive components, gas-phase diffusion process and surface diffusion process. The mean lifetime of adatoms on epitaxial surface was associated with their reaction rate in this model. An InGaN layer on ridge shaped GaN, including (0002) and {112¯2} facets, was grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition to confirm the mass transport model. Gradient indium content distribution and inhomogeneous thickness of the InGaN layer were observed. Simulation of the InGaN layer growth process was performed by finite difference method with the mass transport model. By analyzing the results from calculations and experiments, the origins of the InGaN layer characteristics were attributed to the two diffusion components in the growth process. Surface diffusion resulted in the inhomogeneous thickness and gas-p...

Temperature-controlled epitaxy of InxGa1-xN alloys and their band gap bowing

InxGa1-xN alloys (0 ≤ x ≤ 1) have been grown on GaN/sapphire templates by molecular beam epitaxy. Growth temperature controlled epitaxy was proposed to modulate the In composition so that each InxGa1-xN layer was grown at a temperature as high as possible and thus their crystalline quality was improved. The bandgap energies of the InxGa1-xN alloys have been precisely evaluated by optical transmission spectroscopy, where the effect of residual strain and electron concentration (the Burstein-Moss effect) on the bandgap energy shift has been considered. Finally, a bowing parameter of ∼1.9 ± 0.1 eV has been obtained by the well fitting In-composition dependent bandgap energy.

Growth of high quality and uniformity AlGaN/GaN heterostructures on Si substrates using a single AlGaN layer with low Al composition

By employing a single AlGaN layer with low Al composition, high quality and uniformity AlGaN/GaN heterostructures have been successfully grown on Si substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The heterostructures exhibit a high electron mobility of 2150 cm2/Vs with an electron density of 9.3 × 1012 cm−2. The sheet resistance is 313 ± 4 Ω/◻ with ±1.3% variation. The high uniformity is attributed to the reduced wafer bow resulting from the balance of the compressive stress induced and consumed during the growth, and the thermal tensile stress induced during the cooling down process. By a combination of theoretical calculations and in situ wafer curvature measurements, we find that the compressive stress consumed by the dislocation relaxation (~1.2 GPa) is comparable to the value of the thermal tensile stress (~1.4 GPa) and we should pay more attention to it during growth of GaN on Si substrates. Our results demonstrate a promising approach to simplifying the growth processes of GaN-on-Si to reduce the wafer bow and lower the cost while maintaining high material quality.

High mobility AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on Si substrates using a large lattice-mismatch induced stress control technology

A large lattice-mismatch induced stress control technology with a low Al content AlGaN layer has been used to grow high quality GaN layers on 4-in. Si substrates. The use of this technology allows for high mobility AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with electron mobility of 2040 cm2/(V·s) at sheet charge density of 8.4 × 1012 cm−2. Strain relaxation and dislocation evolution mechanisms have been investigated. It is demonstrated that the large lattice mismatch between the low Al content AlGaN layer and AlN buffer layer could effectively promote the edge dislocation inclination with relatively large bend angles and therefore significantly reduce the dislocation density in the GaN epilayer. Our results show a great potential for fabrication of low-cost and high performance GaN-on-Si power devices.

Luminescent properties in the strain adjusted phosphor-free GaN based white light-emitting diode

A kind of phosphor-free GaN based white light-emitting diode was fabricated with a strain adjusting InGaN interlayer. The origin of the strain adjusted white luminescent properties was studied with cathodoluminescence, asymmetrically reciprocal space mapping with high resolution x-ray diffraction, and scanning electron microscopy. The yellow and blue components of the electroluminescence spectrum were attributed to the high indium core and the adjacent indium depleted region in the inverted pyramidal pits on the device surface, respectively. These pits existed at the end of the dislocations induced by the strain relaxation process of the InGaN interlayer.

Study on threading dislocations blocking mechanism of GaN∕AlxGa1−xN superlattices

GaN∕AlxGa1−xN superlattices (SLs) with different period thicknesses tp were grown as interlayers between GaN and AlyGa1−yN epilayers. The effect of threading dislocations (TDs) blocking became more evident with increasing tp. Transmission electron microscopy analysis shows that TDs are inclined to be bended in SLs and terminated in GaN wells as a result of strain. X-ray diffraction measurement also validated that GaN wells played a more important role as a TDs filter. The blocking of TDs in SLs resulted in an abnormal decrease in relaxation factors R(SLs) with increasing tp.

Temperature dependence on current-voltage characteristics of Ni∕Au–Al0.45Ga0.55N Schottky photodiode

Temperature dependence on electrical characteristics of a Ni∕Au–Al0.45Ga0.55N Schottky photodiode is investigated in a temperature range of 198–323K. The ideality factor decreases from 2.57 to 1.75, while the barrier height increases from 0.75to1.14eV in this temperature range. The ln(I)-V curves at a small forward current are intersectant at 273, 298, and 323K and are almost parallel at 198, 223, and 248K. This crossing of the ln(I)-V curves is an inherent property of Schottky diodes, and the almost parallel curves can be well explained by thermionic field emission theory.

Effect of polarization on intersubband transition in AlGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells

Intersubband transitions (ISBT) of AlGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with wavelength towards atmospheric window (3–5 μm) have been investigated. A Ga-excess epitaxial method is used in the molecular beam epitaxy leading to ultra-sharp interface and negligible elements inter-diffusion. The absorption peak wavelength of the ISBT was successfully tuned in the range of 3–4 μm by modifying the GaN well thickness from 2.8 to 5.5 nm. It was further found that the polarization charge density of the AlGaN/GaN MQWs was about −0.034 C/m2 which gave rise to blueshift of the ISBT wavelength and thus partially compensated its redshift with increasing well thickness.