M. Athanasiou

Fabrication of two-dimensional InGaN/GaN photonic crystal structure using a modified nanosphere lithography technique

By means of combining a very cost-effective lift-off process and a nanosphere lithography technique, we have fabricated two dimensional (2D) photonic crystal (PhC) structures on an InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structure. Significant enhancement in photoluminescence (PL) intensity has been observed when the emission wavelength is within the photonic bandgap. Time-resolved PL measurements have shown that the spontaneous emission rate is strongly reduced by a factor of ∼4 due to the PhC effect. As a consequence, the emission intensity along 2D PhC slab-plane directions is effectively suppressed and redistributed to the direction normal to the 2D PhC slab-plane simultaneously. Temperature-dependent PL measurements have confirmed that the enhanced PL intensity is due to an increase in extraction efficiency as a result of the PhC effect.

Efficiency enhancement of InGaN/GaN solar cells with nanostructures

We demonstrate InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well solar cells with nanostructures operating at a wavelength of 520 nm. Nanostructures with a periodic nanorod or nanohole array are fabricated by means of modified nanosphere lithography. Under 1 sun air-mass 1.5 global spectrum illumination, a fill factor of 50 and an open circuit voltage of 1.9 V are achieved in spite of very high indium content in InGaN alloys usually causing degradation of crystal quality. Both the nanorod array and the nanohole array significantly improve the performance of solar cells, while a larger enhancement is observed for the nanohole array, where the conversion efficiency is enhanced by 51%.

Room temperature continuous–wave green lasing from an InGaN microdisk on silicon

Optically pumped green lasing with an ultra low threshold has been achieved using an InGaN/GaN based micro-disk with an undercut structure on silicon substrates. The micro-disks with a diameter of around 1 μm were fabricated by means of a combination of a cost-effective silica micro-sphere approach, dry-etching and subsequent chemical etching. The combination of these techniques both minimises the roughness of the sidewalls of the micro-disks and also produces excellent circular geometry. Utilizing this fabrication process, lasing has been achieved at room temperature under optical pumping from a continuous-wave laser diode. The threshold for lasing is as low as 1 kW/cm2. Time–resolved micro photoluminescence (PL) and confocal PL measurements have been performed in order to further confirm the lasing action in whispering gallery modes and also investigate the excitonic recombination dynamics of the lasing.

Temporally and spatially resolved photoluminescence investigation of (112¯2) semi-polar InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells grown on nanorod templates

By means of time-resolved photoluminescence (PL) and confocal PL measurements, temporally and spatially resolved optical properties have been investigated on a number of InxGa1−xN/GaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures with a wide range of indium content alloys from 13% to 35% on (112¯2) semi-polar GaN with high crystal quality, obtained through overgrowth on nanorod templates. With increasing indium content, the radiative recombination lifetime initially increases as expected, but decreases if the indium content further increases to 35%, corresponding to emission in the green spectral region. The reduced radiative recombination lifetime leads to enhanced optical performance for the high indium content MQWs as a result of strong exciton localization, which is different from the behaviour of c-plane InGaN/GaN MQWs, where quantum confined Stark effect plays a dominating role in emission process.

Coherent nanocavity structures for enhancement in internal quantum efficiency of III-nitride multiple quantum wells

A “coherent” nanocavity structure has been designed on two-dimensional well-ordered InGaN/GaN nanodisk arrays with an emission wavelength in the green spectral region, leading to a massive enhancement in resonance mode in the green spectra region. By means of a cost-effective nanosphere lithography technique, we have fabricated such a structure on an InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well epiwafer and have observed the “coherent” nanocavity effect, which leads to an enhanced spontaneous emission (SE) rate. The enhanced SE rate has been confirmed by time resolved photoluminescence measurements. Due to the coherent nanocavity effect, we have achieved a massive improvement in internal quantum efficiency with a factor of 88, compared with the as-grown sample, which could be significant to bridge the “green gap” in solid-state lighting.

Enhanced non-radiative energy transfer in hybrid III-nitride structures

The effect of surface states has been investigated in hybrid organic/inorganic white light emitting structures that employ high efficiency, nearfield non-radiative energy transfer (NRET) coupling. The structures utilize blue emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) nanorod arrays to minimize the separation with a yellow emitting F8BT coating. Surface states due to the exposed III-nitride surfaces of the nanostructures are found to reduce the NRET coupling rate. The surface states are passivated by deposition of a silicon nitride layer on the III-nitride nanorod surface leading to reduced surface recombination. A low thickness surface passivation is shown to increase the NRET coupling rate by 4 times compared to an un-passivated hybrid structure. A model is proposed to explain the increased NRET rate for the passivated hybrid structures based on the reduction in surface electron depletion of the passivated InGaN/GaN MQW nanorods surfaces.

Enhanced polarization of (11–22) semi-polar InGaN nanorod array structure

By means of a cost effective nanosphere lithography technique, an InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structure grown on (11–22) semipolar GaN has been fabricated into two dimensional nanorod arrays which form a photonic crystal (PhC) structure. Such a PhC structure demonstrates not only significantly increased emission intensity, but also an enhanced polarization ratio of the emission. This is due to an effective inhibition of the emission in slab modes and then redistribution to the vertical direction, thus minimizing the light scattering processes that lead to randomizing of the optical polarization. The PhC structure is designed based on a standard finite-difference-time-domain simulation, and then optically confirmed by detailed time-resolved photoluminescence measurements. The results presented pave the way for the fabrication of semipolar InGaN/GaN based emitters with both high efficiency and highly polarized emission.

Enhanced water splitting with silver decorated GaN photoelectrode

By means of a cost-effective approach, we demonstrate a GaN-based photoelectrode decorated with self-organized silver nano-islands employed for solar powered hydrogen generation, demonstrating 4 times increase in photocurrent compared with a reference sample without using any silver. Our photoelectrode exhibits a 60% incident photon-to-electron conversion efficiency. The enhanced hydrogen generation is attributed to a significantly increased carrier generation rate as a result of strongly localized electric fields induced by surface plasmon coupling effect. The silver coating also contributes to the good chemical stability of our photoelectrode in a strong alkali electrolyte. This work paves the way for the development of GaN and also InGaN based photoelectrodes with ultra-high solar hydrogen conversion efficiency.

Polarized white light from hybrid organic/III-nitrides grating structures.

Highly polarised white light emission from a hybrid organic/inorganic device has been achieved. The hybrid devices are fabricated by means of combining blue InGaN-based multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with a one-dimensional (1D) grating structure and down-conversion F8BT yellow light emitting polymer. The 1D grating structure converts the blue emission from unpolarised to highly polarised; Highly polarised yellow emission has been achieved from the F8BT polymer filled and aligned along the periodic nano-channels of the grating structure as a result of enhanced nano-confinement. Optical polarization measurements show that our device demonstrates a polarization degree of up to 43% for the smallest nano-channel width. Furthermore, the hybrid device with such a grating structure allows us to achieve an optimum relative orientation between the dipoles in the donor (i.e., InGaN/GaN MQWs) and the diploes in the acceptor (i.e., the F8BT), maximizing the efficiency of non-radiative energy transfer (NRET) between the donor and the acceptor. Time–resolved micro photoluminescence measurements show a 2.5 times enhancement in the NRET efficiency, giving a maximal NRET efficiency of 90%. It is worth highlighting that the approach developed paves the way for the fabrication of highly polarized white light emitters.

Monolithically multi-color lasing from an InGaN microdisk on a Si substrate

An optically pumped multi-color laser has been achieved using an InGaN/GaN based micro-disk with an undercut structure on a silicon substrate. The micro-disk laser has been fabricated by means of a combination of a cost-effective microsphere lithography technique and subsequent dry/wet etching processes. The microdisk laser is approximately 1 μm in diameter. The structure was designed in such a way that the vertical components of the whispering gallery (WG) modes formed can be effectively suppressed. Consequently, three clean lasing peaks at 442 nm, 493 nm and 522 nm have been achieved at room temperature by simply using a continuous-wave diode laser as an optical pumping source. Time–resolved micro photoluminescence (PL) measurements have been performed in order to further confirm the lasing by investigating the excitonic recombination dynamics of these lasing peaks. A three dimensional finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) simulation has been used for the structure design.