Marc P. Hoffmann

On the origin of the 265 nm absorption band in AlN bulk crystals

Single crystal AlN provides a native substrate for Al-rich AlGaN that is needed for the development of efficient deep ultraviolet light emitting and laser diodes. An absorption band centered around 4.7 eV (∼265 nm) with an absorption coefficient above 1000 cm−1 is observed in these substrates. Based on density functional theory calculations, substitutional carbon on the nitrogen site introduces absorption at this energy. A series of single crystalline wafers were used to demonstrate that this absorption band linearly increased with carbon, strongly supporting the model that CN- is the predominant state for carbon in AlN.

Polarity control and growth of lateral polarity structures in AlN

The control of the polarity of metalorganic chemical vapor deposition grown AlN on sapphire is demonstrated. Al-polar and N-polar AlN is grown side-by-side yielding a lateral polarity structure. Scanning electron microscopy measurements reveal a smooth surface for the Al-polar and a relatively rough surface for the N-polar AlN domains. Transmission electron microscopy shows mixed edge-screw type dislocations with polarity-dependent dislocation bending. Raman spectroscopy reveals compressively strained Al-polar and relaxed N-polar domains. The near band edge luminescence consists of free and bound excitons which are broadened for the Al-polar AlN. Relaxation, better optical quality, and dislocation bending in the N-polar domains are explained by the columnar growth mode.

Compensation effects in GaN:Mg probed by Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurements

Compensation effects in metal organic chemical vapour deposition grown GaN doped with magnesium are investigated with Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurements. Examining the strain sensitive E2(high) mode, an increasing compressive strain is revealed for samples with Mg-concentrations lower than 7 × 1018 cm−3. For higher Mg-concentrations, this strain is monotonically reduced. This relaxation is accompanied by a sudden decrease in crystal quality. Luminescence measurements reveal a well defined near band edge luminescence with free, donor bound, and acceptor bound excitons as well as a characteristic donor acceptor pair (DAP) luminescence. Following recent results, three acceptor bound excitons and donor acceptor pairs are identified. Along with the change of the strain, a strong modification in the luminescence of the dominating acceptor bound exciton and DAP luminescence is observed. The results from Raman spectroscopy and luminescence measurements are interpreted as fingerprints of compensation effects in GaN:Mg leading to the conclusion that compensation due to defect incorporation triggered by Mg-doping already affects the crystal properties at doping levels of around 7 × 1018 cm−3. Thereby, the generation of nitrogen vacancies is introduced as the driving force for the change of the strain state and the near band edge luminescence.Compensation effects in metal organic chemical vapour deposition grown GaN doped with magnesium are investigated with Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence measurements. Examining the strain sensitive E2(high) mode, an increasing compressive strain is revealed for samples with Mg-concentrations lower than 7 × 1018 cm−3. For higher Mg-concentrations, this strain is monotonically reduced. This relaxation is accompanied by a sudden decrease in crystal quality. Luminescence measurements reveal a well defined near band edge luminescence with free, donor bound, and acceptor bound excitons as well as a characteristic donor acceptor pair (DAP) luminescence. Following recent results, three acceptor bound excitons and donor acceptor pairs are identified. Along with the change of the strain, a strong modification in the luminescence of the dominating acceptor bound exciton and DAP luminescence is observed. The results from Raman spectroscopy and luminescence measurements are interpreted as fingerprints of compens...

Fermi level control of compensating point defects during metalorganic chemical vapor deposition growth of Si-doped AlGaN

A Fermi-level control scheme for point defect management using above-bandgap UV illumination during growth is presented. We propose an extension to the analogy between the Fermi level and the electrochemical potential such that the electrochemical potential of a charged defect in a material with steady-state populations of free charge carriers may be expressed in terms of the quasi-Fermi levels. A series of highly Si-doped Al0.65Ga0.35N films grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition with and without UV illumination showed that samples grown under UV illumination had increased free carrier concentration, free carrier mobility, and reduced midgap photoluminescence all indicating a reduction in compensating point defects.

Ge doped GaN with controllable high carrier concentration for plasmonic applications

Controllable Ge doping in GaN is demonstrated for carrier concentrations of up to 2.4 × 1020 cm−3. Low temperature luminescence spectra from the highly doped samples reveal band gap renormalization and band filling (Burstein-Moss shift) in addition to a sharp transition. Infrared ellipsometry spectra demonstrate the existence of electron plasma with an energy around 3500 cm−1 and a surface plasma with an energy around 2000 cm−1. These findings open possibilities for the application of highly doped GaN for plasmonic devices.

Refractive index of III-metal-polar and N-polar AlGaN waveguides grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

Optical waveguides of III-metal-polar and N-polar AlGaN are grown on sapphire substrates in order to test their use in integrated optics. The dispersion of the ordinary and extraordinary indices of refraction for films with aluminum mole fraction between 0.0 and 0.30 at four discrete wavelengths has been determined by the prism coupling method. The wavelength dependence of the refractive indices is described well by the first-order Sellmeier dispersion formula. The measurements show a small difference in the refractive indices between the two polarities, which is more pronounced at longer wavelengths.

Fabrication and characterization of lateral polar GaN structures for second harmonic generation

The growth, fabrication, and properties of GaN/AlN/sapphire with periodically poled surface polarity for second harmonic generation are investigated. The periodic inversion of the surface polarity is achieved by the growth of a thin AlN buffer layer and subsequent partial removal by using either wet etching with potassium hydroxide (KOH) or reactive-ion etching (RIE). GaN growth on these substrates by MOCVD leads to Gapolar GaN on the AlN buffer and N-polar GaN on the bare sapphire. Using atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy, it is demonstrated that a sufficient combination of H2 and NH3 surface treatment before the growth of the GaN layers removes surface defects introduced by RIE etching. Thus, films with comparable quality and properties independent of the etching technique could be grown. However, in contrast to RIE etching, the interfaces between the Ga-polar and N-polar GaN is rough if KOH etching is applied. Thus, it is concluded that MOCVD in combination with RIE etched AlN/sapphire substrates can be a versatile process to fabricate GaN with periodically poled surface polarity as desired for UV light generation via frequency doubling.

Point defect reduction in wide bandgap semiconductors by defect quasi Fermi level control

A theoretical framework for a general approach to reduce point defect density in materials via control of defect quasi Fermi level (dQFL) is presented. The control of dQFL is achieved via excess minority carrier generation. General guidelines for controlling dQFL that lead to a significant reduction in compensating point defects in any doped material is proposed. The framework introduces and incorporates the effects of various factors that control the efficacy of the defect reduction process such as defect level, defect formation energy, bandgap, and excess minority carrier density. Modified formation energy diagrams are proposed, which illustrate the effect of the quasi Fermi level control on the defect formation energies. These formation energy diagrams provide powerful tools to determine the feasibility and requirements to produce the desired reduction in specified point defects. An experimental study of the effect of excess minority carriers on point defect incorporation in GaN and AlGaN shows an exce...

Point defect management in GaN by Fermi-level control during growth

A point defect control scheme is demonstrated, to control point defects during the growth of doped wide bandgap semiconductors. First the theoretical description of this new concept is presented, second GaN:Mg is used as a model system and as an experimental example to show its feasibility. It can be shown that above bandgap UV-light illumination during the growth can reduce the passivation and compensation of Mg acceptors in GaN:Mg. The amount of hydrogen impurities, that usually passivates Mg at doping concentrations around Mg:2x1019 cm-3, is significantly reduced by UVillumination. The resistivity of samples grown with UV is similar to the resistivity of post-growth annealed samples. No post growth annealing was needed. In contrast samples that are doped below Mg:<1x1018 cm-3 become n-type conductive when the samples are grown with UV illumination. This observation suggests a reduced incorporation of Mg acceptors due to the UV light. At low Mg doping concentrations the native donor incorporation by O donors dominates the conductivity over Mg acceptors. UV-illumination therefore reduces compensation of donors by Mg acceptors. Thus, these observations support the concept of UV illumination as a way to control the Fermi level of different charged point defects to control compensation in doped semiconductors.

Optical characterization of Al- and N-polar AlN waveguides for integrated optics

Dispersion of the extraordinary and ordinary refractive indices of Al- and N-polar AlN waveguides is measured by multiple angle-of-incidence and spectroscopic ellipsometry techniques. The polarity-controlled AlN layers are grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition on (0001)-sapphire substrates. Taking into consideration the different surface morphologies of the Al- and N-polar AlN waveguides, we propose two optical models to describe the measured ellipsometry data. The results indicate that there is no difference between the refractive indices of the AlN grown in opposite directions, which confirms the potential of the AlN lateral polar structures for use in nonlinear optical applications based on quasi phase matching.