Yao Xing

The residual C concentration control for low temperature growth p-type GaN*

In this work, the influence of C concentration to the performance of low temperature growth p-GaN is studied. Through analyses, we have confirmed that the C impurity has a compensation effect to p-GaN. At the same time we have found that several growth and annealing parameters have influences on the residual C concentration: (i) the C concentration decreases with the increase of growth pressure; (ii) we have found there exists a Ga memory effect when changing the Cp2Mg flow which will lead the growth rate and C concentration increase along the increase of Cp2Mg flow; (iii) annealing outside of metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) could decrease the C concentration while in situ annealing in MOCVD has an immobilization role to C concentration.

Output light power of InGaN-based violet laser diodes improved by using a u-InGaN/GaN/AlGaN multiple upper waveguide*

The upper waveguide (UWG) has direct influences on the optical and electrical characteristics of the violet laser diode (LD) by changing the optical field distribution or barrier of the electron blocking layer (EBL). In this study, a series of InGaN-based violet LDs with different UWGs are investigated systematically with LASTIP software. It is found that the output light power (OLP) under an injecting current of 120 mA or the threshold current (I th) is deteriorated when the UWG is u-In0.02Ga0.98N/GaN or u-In0.02Ga0.98N/Al x Ga1−x N (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1), which should be attributed to small optical confinement factor (OCF) or severe electron leakage. Therefore, a new violet LD structure with u-In0.02Ga0.98N/GaN/Al0.05Ga0.95N multiple layer UWG is proposed to reduce the optical loss and increase the barrier of EBL. Finally, the output light power under an injecting current of 120 mA is improved to 176.4 mW.

Carbon-Related Defects as a Source for the Enhancement of Yellow Luminescence of Unintentionally Doped GaN

Yellow luminescence (YL) of unintentionally doped GaN (u-GaN) peaking at about 2.2 eV has been investigated for decades, but its origin still remains controversial. In this study, ten u-GaN samples grown via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) are investigated. It is observed from the room temperature (RT) photoluminescence (PL) measurements that the YL band is enhanced in the PL spectra of those samples if their MOCVD growth is carried out with a decrease of pressure, temperature, or flow rate of NH3. Furthermore, a strong dependence of YL band intensity on the carbon concentration is found by secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) measurements, demonstrating that the increased carbon-related defects in these samples are responsible for the enhancement of the YL band.

Suppression of electron and hole overflow in GaN-based near-ultraviolet laser diodes

In order to suppress the electron leakage to p-type region of near-ultraviolet GaN/In x Ga1–x N/GaN multiple-quantumwell (MQW) laser diode (LD), the Al composition of inserted p-type Al x Ga1–x N electron blocking layer (EBL) is optimized in an effective way, but which could only partially enhance the performance of LD. Here, due to the relatively shallow GaN/In0.04Ga0.96N/GaN quantum well, the hole leakage to n-type region is considered in the ultraviolet LD. To reduce the hole leakage, a 10-nm n-type Al x Ga1–x N hole blocking layer (HBL) is inserted between n-type waveguide and the first quantum barrier, and the effect of Al composition of Al x Ga1–x N HBL on LD performance is studied. Numerical simulations by the LASTIP reveal that when an appropriate Al composition of Al x Ga1–x N HBL is chosen, both electron leakage and hole leakage can be reduced dramatically, leading to a lower threshold current and higher output power of LD.

Resistivity reduction of low temperature grown p-Al0.09Ga0.91N by suppressing the incorporation of carbon impurity

Reducing the resistivity of low temperature grown p-Al0.09Ga0.91N layers is crucial to improving the performance of GaN-based laser diodes. In this study, growth conditions of low temperature grown p-Al0.09Ga0.91N layers are monitored and the role of C impurity is investigated systematically. On the basis of the dependence of resistivity on C concentration and the photoluminescence analysis, it is found that C impurities act as donors in p-Al0.09Ga0.91N layer, and reducing the C concentration can reduce its compensation effect on Mg acceptor. Finally, a low resistivity of 4.2 Ω·cm is achieved for the low temperature grown p-Al0.09Ga0.91N.Reducing the resistivity of low temperature grown p-Al0.09Ga0.91N layers is crucial to improving the performance of GaN-based laser diodes. In this study, growth conditions of low temperature grown p-Al0.09Ga0.91N layers are monitored and the role of C impurity is investigated systematically. On the basis of the dependence of resistivity on C concentration and the photoluminescence analysis, it is found that C impurities act as donors in p-Al0.09Ga0.91N layer, and reducing the C concentration can reduce its compensation effect on Mg acceptor. Finally, a low resistivity of 4.2 Ω·cm is achieved for the low temperature grown p-Al0.09Ga0.91N.

Deep levels induced optical memory effect in thin InGaN film

An optical memory effect is found in a 20 nm InGaN film. With increasing illumination time, photoluminescence (PL) intensity of InGaN rises at first and then falls. We present that this effect is caused by carriers capture in deep levels near interfaces between GaN and InGaN. Firstly, carriers captured by deep levels near the interfaces reduces the band inclination in InGaN. This cause the rise of PL intensity. Secondly, more and more captured carriers may form anti-shielding, which enhances band inclination and results in the decrease of PL intensity. Carriers captured in previous illumination can remain for a long time after illumination is blocked, which make InGaN show an optical memory effect.An optical memory effect is found in a 20 nm InGaN film. With increasing illumination time, photoluminescence (PL) intensity of InGaN rises at first and then falls. We present that this effect is caused by carriers capture in deep levels near interfaces between GaN and InGaN. Firstly, carriers captured by deep levels near the interfaces reduces the band inclination in InGaN. This cause the rise of PL intensity. Secondly, more and more captured carriers may form anti-shielding, which enhances band inclination and results in the decrease of PL intensity. Carriers captured in previous illumination can remain for a long time after illumination is blocked, which make InGaN show an optical memory effect.

Influence of Indium Content on the Unintentional Background Doping and Device Performance of InGaN/GaN Multiple-Quantum-Well Solar Cells

We experimentally investigate the influence of indium composition on the photovoltaic performance of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) solar cells. Three MQW structures with different In content are grown via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, and then fabricated into solar cell devices. The solar cells with lower In content show stronger photovoltaic response, which may be ascribed to both smaller piezoelectric fields in InGaN well layers and better material quality of MQW active region. In addition, based on the capacitance–voltage measurements by which the profiles of apparent carrier concentration can be determined, we find that in the higher-In-content solar cells the background electron concentration in unintentionally doped InGaN QWs is higher. Consequently, the effective volume of active region, or the width of depletion region, may become smaller at zero bias and correspondingly the light absorption by InGaN active layers is reduced. This may be attributed to the increased nitrogen vacancy-related defects which are easier induced into In-rich InGaN alloys as a source of shallow donors.

Different influences of u-InGaN upper waveguide on the performance of GaN-based blue and green laser diodes

Performances of blue and green laser diodes (LDs) with different u-InGaN upper waveguides (UWGs) are investigated theoretically by using LASTIP. It is found that the slope efficiency (SE) of blue LD decreases due to great optical loss when the indium content of u-InGaN UWG is more than 0.02, although its leakage current decreases obviously. Meanwhile the SE of the green LD increases when the indium content of u-InGaN UWG is varied from 0 to 0.05, which is attributed to the reduction of leakage current and the small increase of optical loss. Therefore, a new blue LD structure with In0.05Ga0.95N lower waveguide (LWG) is designed to reduce the optical loss, and its slope efficiency is improved significantly.

Evolution of differential efficiency in blue InGaN laser diodes before and after a lasing threshold

The optical power emitting from the cavity facet of blue InGaN-based laser diodes (LDs) is measured to investigate the efficiency droop. The efficiency droop behavior of blue InGaN-based LDs near the threshold is confirmed in our experiments. From measurements of optical power at different wavelengths, it is analyzed that the droop behavior of LDs can be ascribed to the efficiency reduction of longer wavelengths. The efficiency of longer wavelengths is subject to the carrier occupation process in quantum levels. In addition, it is found that the droop behavior may be largely affected by the relatively large threshold current of InGaN-based LDs and the screening effect of polarization, and it can be suppressed by stimulated emission.

Influence of residual carbon impurities in a heavily Mg-doped GaN contact layer on an Ohmic contact

The influence of residual carbon impurities incorporated into a heavily Mg-doped GaN layer has been studied systematically according to the relation between the carbon concentration and specific contact resistance. Furthermore, the results of temperature-dependent current-voltage characteristics and the photoluminescence spectra indicate that a proper concentration of residual carbon impurities can improve the performance of Ohmic contact by introducing deep-level defects to enhance the variable-range-hopping conduction.