Tongtong Zhu

Low threshold, room-temperature microdisk lasers in the blue spectral range

InGaN-based active layers within microcavity resonators offer the potential of low threshold lasers in the blue spectral range. Here, we demonstrate optically pumped, room temperature lasing in high quality factor GaN microdisk cavities, containing InGaN quantum dots (QDs) with thresholds as low as 0.28 mJ/cm2. The demonstration of lasing action from GaN microdisk cavities with QDs in the active layer, provides a critical step for the nitrides in realizing low threshold photonic devices with efficient coupling between QDs and an optical cavity

Non-polar (11-20) InGaN quantum dots with short exciton lifetimes grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy

We report on the optical characterization of non-polar a-plane InGaN quantum dots (QDs) grown by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy using a short nitrogen anneal treatment at the growth temperature. Spatial and spectral mapping of sub-surface QDs has been achieved by cathodoluminescence at 8 K. Microphotoluminescence studies of the QDs reveal resolution limited sharp peaks with typical linewidth of 1 meV at 4.2 K. Time-resolved photoluminescence studies suggest the excitons in these QDs have a typical lifetime of 538 ps, much shorter than that of the c-plane QDs, which is strong evidence of the significant suppression of the internal electric fields.

Indium clustering in a-plane InGaN quantum wells as evidenced by atom probe tomography

Atom probe tomography (APT) has been used to characterize the distribution of In atoms within non-polar a-plane InGaN quantum wells (QWs) grown on a GaN pseudo-substrate produced using epitaxial lateral overgrowth. Application of the focused ion beam microscope enabled APT needles to be prepared from the low defect density regions of the grown sample. A complementary analysis was also undertaken on QWs having comparable In contents grown on polar c-plane sample pseudo-substrates. Both frequency distribution and modified nearest neighbor analyses indicate a statistically non-randomized In distribution in the a-plane QWs, but a random distribution in the c-plane QWs. This work not only provides insights into the structure of non-polar a-plane QWs but also shows that APT is capable of detecting as-grown nanoscale clustering in InGaN and thus validates the reliability of earlier APT analyses of the In distribution in c-plane InGaN QWs which show no such clustering.

Distinctive signature of indium gallium nitride quantum dot lasing in microdisk cavities.

Significance The III-nitride family of materials has already demonstrated tremendous optical efficiency and versatility for devices across a broad range of wavelengths. Quantum dots formed in these materials, with advantages such as improved carrier confinement, should offer even greater device efficiency. They are also important constituents for fundamental studies of light−matter interaction. However, that promise has been far from realized, and this is a complex problem to address. This work, through a comparative study of quantum dot, quantum well, and fragmented quantum well gain media in compact microdisk cavities, allows better understanding of the limitations to lasing for the quantum dot samples. These results allow both improved device efficiency and fundamental insights into quantum dot−cavity interactions in these materials. Low-threshold lasers realized within compact, high-quality optical cavities enable a variety of nanophotonics applications. Gallium nitride materials containing indium gallium nitride (InGaN) quantum dots and quantum wells offer an outstanding platform to study light−matter interactions and realize practical devices such as efficient light-emitting diodes and nanolasers. Despite progress in the growth and characterization of InGaN quantum dots, their advantages as the gain medium in low-threshold lasers have not been clearly demonstrated. This work seeks to better understand the reasons for these limitations by focusing on the simpler, limited-mode microdisk cavities, and by carrying out comparisons of lasing dynamics in those cavities using varying gain media including InGaN quantum wells, fragmented quantum wells, and a combination of fragmented quantum wells with quantum dots. For each gain medium, we use the distinctive, high-quality (Q∼5,500) modes of the cavities, and the change in the highest-intensity mode as a function of pump power to better understand the dominant radiative processes. The variations of threshold power and lasing wavelength as a function of gain medium help us identify the possible limitations to lower-threshold lasing with quantum dot active medium. In addition, we have identified a distinctive lasing signature for quantum dot materials, which consistently lase at wavelengths shorter than the peak of the room temperature gain emission. These findings not only provide better understanding of lasing in nitride-based quantum dot cavity systems but also shed insight into the more fundamental issues of light−matter coupling in such systems.

Microstructural, optical, and electrical characterization of semipolar (112¯2) gallium nitride grown by epitaxial lateral overgrowth

Semipolar (112¯2) gallium nitride (GaN) films have been grown on m-plane (11¯00) sapphire by epitaxial lateral overgrowth. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies show that the inclination of the [0001] axis at 32° from the film surface combined with the high [0001] growth rate under the reactor conditions used, allowed a low defect density (LDD) wing growing along [0001] to partially overgrow the highly defective window region and the other wing, resulting in a coalescence boundary, at which stacking faults and dislocations appear to terminate. Low temperature cathodoluminescence (CL) was performed to correlate the optical properties with the different stages of the growth process. It is found that emission from the LDD wing is dominated by near band edge recombination, whereas an emission band at 3.42 eV related to basal plane stacking faults and a broad band from 3.15–3.38 eV possibly related to emission from prismatic stacking faults and partial dislocations were observed in the window region. ...

Dry etch release processes for micromachining applications

The authors report on the comparative study of two dry etch processes for polysilicon sacrificial layer release using vapor phase xenon difluoride (XeF2) continuous etching and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching with sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) gas. Test structures of 0.5μm thick polysilicon have been patterned and etch channels varying in widths from 1to500μm have been fabricated successfully for the purpose of comparison. The influence of etch pressure, aperture opening size, and ICP etch power on the undercut etching rate as well as selectivity between mask and substrate have been studied. It has been possible to achieve an undercut etch rate of up to 11.6μm∕min under a pressure of 3Torr in XeF2 etch gas, while for SF6 plasma, an undercut etch rate of 2.56μm∕min at 65mTorr is obtained. Moreover, the optimized process has been employed for the fabrication of silicon carbide (SiC) resonators.

Characterization of unintentional doping in nonpolar GaN

Unintentional doping in nonpolar a-plane (112¯0) gallium nitride (GaN) grown on r-plane (11¯02) sapphire using a three-dimensional (3D)–two-dimensional (2D) growth method has been characterized. For both 2D only and 3D–2D growth, the presence of an unintentionally doped region adjacent to the GaN/sapphire interface is observed by scanning capacitance microscopy (SCM). The average width of this unintentionally doped layer is found to increase with increasing 3D growth time. By using an intentionally doped GaN:Si staircase structure for calibration, it is shown that the unintentionally doped region has an average carrier concentration of (2.5±0.3)×1018 cm−3. SCM also reveals the presence of unintentionally doped features extending at 60° from the GaN/sapphire interface. The observation of decreasing carrier concentration with distance from the GaN/sapphire interface along these features may suggest that the unintentional doping arises from oxygen diffusion from the sapphire substrate. Low temperature cathod...

The microstructure of non-polar a-plane (11 2¯0) InGaN quantum wells

Atom probe tomography and quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopy are used to assess the composition of non-polar a-plane (11-20) InGaN quantum wells for applications in optoelectronics. The average quantum well composition measured by atom probe tomography and quantitative scanning transmission electron microscopy quantitatively agrees with measurements by X-ray diffraction. Atom probe tomography is further applied to study the distribution of indium atoms in non-polar a-plane (11-20) InGaN quantum wells. An inhomogeneous indium distribution is observed by frequency distribution analysis of the atom probe tomography measurements. The optical properties of non-polar (11-20) InGaN quantum wells with indium compositions varying from 7.9% to 20.6% are studied. In contrast to non-polar m-plane (1-100) InGaN quantum wells, the non-polar a-plane (11-20) InGaN quantum wells emit at longer emission wavelengths at the equivalent indium composition. The non-polar a-plane (11-20) quantum wells also show broader spectral linewidths. The longer emission wavelengths and broader spectral linewidths may be related to the observed inhomogeneous indium distribution.

Ultra-low threshold gallium nitride photonic crystal nanobeam laser

We report exceptionally low thresholds (9.1 μJ/cm2) for room temperature lasing at ∼450 nm in optically pumped Gallium Nitride (GaN) nanobeam cavity structures. The nanobeam cavity geometry provides high theoretical Q (>100 000) with small modal volume, leading to a high spontaneous emission factor, β = 0.94. The active layer materials are Indium Gallium Nitride (InGaN) fragmented quantum wells (fQWs), a critical factor in achieving the low thresholds, which are an order-of-magnitude lower than obtainable with continuous QW active layers. We suggest that the extra confinement of photo-generated carriers for fQWs (compared to QWs) is responsible for the excellent performance.

Observations of Rabi oscillations in a non-polar InGaN quantum dot

Experimental observation of Rabi rotations between an exciton excited state and the crystal ground state in a single non-polar InGaN quantum dot is presented. The exciton excited state energy is determined by photoluminescence excitation spectroscopy using two-photon excitation from a pulsed laser. The population of the exciton excited state is seen to undergo power dependent damped Rabi oscillations.