M. Leszczynski

Lattice parameters of gallium nitride

Lattice parameters of gallium nitride were measured using high‐resolution x‐ray diffraction. The following samples were examined: (i) single crystals grown at pressure of about 15 kbar, (ii) homoepitaxial layers, (iii) heteroepitaxial layers (wurtzite structure) on silicon carbide, on sapphire, and on gallium arsenide, (iv) cubic gallium nitride layers on gallium arsenide. The differences between the samples are discussed in terms of their concentrations of free electrons and structural defects.

Mechanism of yellow luminescence in GaN

We investigated the pressure behavior of yellow luminescence in bulk crystals and epitaxial layers of GaN. This photoluminescence band exhibits a blueshift of 30±2 meV/GPa for pressures up to about 20 GPa. For higher pressure we observe the saturation of the position of this luminescence. Both effects are consistent with the mechanism of yellow luminescence caused by electron recombination between the shallow donor (or conduction band) and a deep gap state of donor or acceptor character.

Thermal expansion of gallium nitride

Lattice constants of gallium nitride (wurzite structure) have been measured at temperatures 294–753 K. The measurements were performed by using x‐ray diffractometry. Two kinds of samples were used: (1) bulk monocrystal grown at pressure of 15 kbar, (2) epitaxial layer grown on a sapphire substrate. The latter had a smaller lattice constant in a direction parallel to the interface plane by about 0.03%. This difference was induced by a higher thermal expansion of the sapphire with respect to the GaN layer. However, this thermal strain was created mainly at temperatures below 500–600 K. Above these temperatures the lattice mismatch in parallel direction diminished to zero at a temperature of about 800 K.

Elastic and plastic properties of GaN determined by nano-indentation of bulk crystal

The major obstacle to the production of a blue laser is posed by difficulties with the preparation of defect-free GaN layers. A considerable amount of empirical work is presently being undertaken to achieve this goal. However, there is a lack of basic research on the reduction of residual stress and defects in these epilayers since the mechanical characteristics of GaN have not been measured yet. This is due to difficulties with experimental examination of thin films. This work addresses the mechanical properties of bulk GaN obtained by a high-pressure method. Young’s modulus (295 GPa), hardness (20 GPa), yield strength (15 GPa), and the stress–strain curve of GaN have been evaluated using nano-indentation. The cause of the sudden depth excursions during indentation of GaN epilayers has been clarified.

GaN–AlGaN heterostructure field-effect transistors over bulk GaN substrates

We report on AlGaN/GaN heterostructures and heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) fabricated on high-pressure-grown bulk GaN substrates. The 2d electron gas channel exhibits excellent electronic properties with room-temperature electron Hall mobility as high as μ=1650 cm2/V s combined with a very large electron sheet density ns≈1.4×1013 cm−2. The HFET devices demonstrated better linearity of transconductance and low gate leakage, especially at elevated temperatures. We also present the comparative study of high-current AlGaN/GaN HFETs (nsμ>2×1016 V−1 s−1) grown on bulk GaN, sapphire, and SiC substrates under the same conditions. We demonstrate that in the high-power regime, the self-heating effects, and not a dislocation density, is the dominant factor determining the device behavior.

Degradation mechanisms in InGaN laser diodes grown on bulk GaN crystals

We have investigated the aging processes in InGaN laser diodes fabricated by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy on low-dislocation-density, high-pressure-grown bulk gallium nitride crystals. The measured threshold current turned out to be a square root function of aging time, indicating the importance of diffusion for device degradation. The differential efficiency, in contrast, was roughly constant during these experiments. From these two observations we can conclude that the main reason for degradation is the diffusion-enhanced increase of nonradiative recombination within the active layer of the laser diode. Additionally, microscopic studies of the degraded structures did not reveal any new dislocations within the active area of the aged diodes, thus identifying point defects as a source of nonradiative processes.

Blue-violet InGaN laser diodes grown on bulk GaN substrates by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy

We report on the InGaN multiquantum laser diodes (LDs) made by rf plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). The laser operation at 408nm is demonstrated at room temperature with pulsed current injections using 50ns pulses at 0.25% duty cycle. The threshold current density and voltage for the LDs with cleaved uncoated mirrors are 12kA∕cm2 (900mA) and 9V, respectively. High output power of 0.83W is obtained during pulse operation at 3.6A and 9.6V bias with the slope efficiency of 0.35W∕A. The laser structures are deposited on the high-pressure-grown low dislocation bulk GaN substrates taking full advantage of the adlayer enhanced lateral diffusion channel for adatoms below the dynamic metallic cover. Our devices compare very favorably to the early laser diodes fabricated using the metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy technique, providing evidence that the relatively low growth temperatures used in this process pose no intrinsic limitations on the quality of the blue optoelectronic components that can be f...

Visible light communications using a directly modulated 422 nm GaN laser diode

Visible light communications using a Gallium-nitride (GaN) laser diode is reported. Devices, which are cased in TO packages, show modulation bandwidths of up to 1.4 GHz. We demonstrate error-free data transmission, defined as transmission of 1×10(-9) bits without any errors, at 2.5 Gbit/s with a sensitivity of 11.5 dBm.

Evidence for localized Si-donor state and its metastable properties in AlGaN

Transport studies of AlxGa1−xN (0.5<x<0.6) doped with Si have been performed in the pressure range up to 1.4 GPa. For these alloys, the Si dopant forms two donor states. One of them has an effective mass character and the other one represents the localized state strongly coupled to the crystal lattice (metastable state). The localized state of Si forms the corresponding level in the gap for x exceeding 0.5. For the higher x, an increase of the activation energy of this state occurs. Metastable properties of the localized state of Si lead to a persistent photoconductivity effect and to a pressure induced freeze-out of electrons.

Homoepitaxial growth of GaN by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy: A benchmark for GaN technology

Carefully optimized low-pressure metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy is used for homoepitaxial growth on distinctively pretreated GaN bulk single crystal substrates. Thereby, outstanding structural and optical qualities of the material have been achieved, exhibiting photoluminescence linewidths for bound excitons as narrow as 95 μeV. These extremely sharp lines reveal fine structures, not reported for GaN. Additionally, all three free excitons as well as their excited states are visible in low-temperature photoluminescence at 2 K. These transitions are clearly identified by reflectance measurements. X-ray diffraction analysis of these layers reveal about 20 arcsec linewidth for the (0004) reflex using CuKα radiation.