Yu Tongjun

GaN substrate and GaN homo-epitaxy for LEDs: Progress and challenges*

After a brief review on the progresses in GaN substrates by ammonothermal method and Na-flux method and hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) technology, our research results of growing GaN thick layer by a gas flow-modulated HVPE, removing the GaN layer through an efficient self-separation process from sapphire substrate, and modifying the uniformity of multiple wafer growth are presented. The effects of surface morphology and defect behaviors on the GaN homo-epitaxial growth on free standing substrate are also discussed, and followed by the advances of LEDs on GaN substrates and prospects of their applications in solid state lighting.

Indium-Induced Effect on Polarized Electroluminescence from InGaN/GaN MQWs Light Emitting Diodes

Polarization-resolved edge-emitting electroluminescence (EL) studies of InGaN/GaN MQWs of wavelengths from near-UV (390 nm) to blue (468 nm) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are performed. Although the TE mode is dominant in all the samples of InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs, an obvious difference of light polarization properties is found in the InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs with different wavelengths. The polarization degree decreases from 52.4% to 26.9% when light wavelength increases. Analyses of band structures of InGaN/GaN quantum wells and luminescence properties of quantum dots imply that quantum-dot-like behavior is the dominant reason for the low luminescence polarization degree of blue LEDs, and the high luminescence polarization degree of UV LEDs mainly comes from QW confinement and the strain effect. Therefore, indium induced carrier confinement (quantum-dot-like behavior) might play a major role in the polarization degree change of InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs from near violet to blue.

Degradation behaviors of high power GaN-based blue light emitting diodes

The degradation mechanism of high power InGaN/GaN blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) is investigated in this paper. The LED samples were stressed at room temperature under 350-mA injection current for about 400 h. The light output power of the LEDs decreased by 35% during the first 100 h and then remained almost unchanged, and the reverse current at −5 V increased from 10−9 A to 10−7 A during the aging process. The power law, whose meaning was re-illustrated by the improved rate equation, was used to analyze the light output power-injection current (L—I) curves. The analysis results indicate that nonradiative recombination, Auger recombination, and the third-order term of carriers overflow increase during the aging process, all of which may be important reasons for the degradation of LEDs. Besides, simulating L—I curves with the improved rate equation reveal that higher-than-third-order terms of carriers overflow may not be the main degradation mechanism, because they change slightly when the LED is stressed.

Effects of V/III ratio on species diffusion anisotropy in the MOCVD growth of non-polar a-plane GaN films

Non-polar a-plane (110) GaN films have been grown on r-plane (102) sapphire substrates by metal organic chemical vapour deposition. The influences of V/III ratio on the species diffusion anisotropy of a-plane GaN films were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, cathodoluminescence and high-resolution x-ray diffraction measurements. The anisotropy of a-plane GaN films may result from the different migration length of adatoms along two in-plane directions. V/III ratio has an effect on the growth rates of different facets and crystal quality. The stripe feature morphology was obviously observed in the film with a high V/III ratio because of the slow growth rate along the [100] direction. When the V/III ratio increased from 1000 to 6000, the in-plane crystal quality anisotropy was decreased due to the weakened predominance in migration length of gallium adatoms.

Structure Dependence of Magnetic Properties for Annealed GaMnN Films Grown by MOCVD

GaMnN/GaN multilayers and conventional GaMnN single layers are grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. Both kinds of samples show room-temperature ferromagnetism. After thermal annealing, the sample with GaMnN/GaN multilayer structure displays a larger coercivity and better thermal stability compared to the GaMnN single layer. The annealing effects on VGa related defects are observed from photoluminescence measurements. Moreover, a different magnetic behavior is also found in the annealed GaMnN films grown on different (n-type GaN and p-type GaN) templates. These kinds of structure-dependent magnetic behaviors indicate that defects or carriers transformation introduced during annealing may have important effects on the electronic structure of Mn ions and on the ferromagnetism. Our work may be helpful for further understanding the origin of ferromagnetism in GaN-based diluted magnetic semiconductors.

Strain effects on the polarized optical properties of InGaN with different In compositions

Strain effects on the polarized optical properties of c-plane and m-plane InxGa1−xN were discussed for different In compositions (x = 0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15) by analyzing the relative oscillator strength (ROS) and energy level splitting of the three transitions related to the top three valence bands (VBs). The ROS was calculated by applying the effective-mass Hamiltonian based on k · p perturbation theory. For c-plane InxGa1−xN, it was found that the ROS of |X) and |Y)-like states were superposed with each other. Especially, under compressive strain, they dominated in the top VB whose energy level also went up with strain, while the ROS of the |Z)-like state decreased in the second band. For m-plane InxGa1−xN under compressive strain, the top three VBs were dominated by |X), |Z), and |Y)-like states, respectively, which led to nearly linearly-polarized light emissions. For the top VB, ROS difference between |X) and |Z)-like states became larger with compressive strain. It was also found that such tendencies were more evident in layers with higher In compositions. As a result, there would be more TE modes in total emissions from both c-plane and m-plane InGaN with compressive strain and In content, leading to a larger polarization degree. Experimental results of luminescence from InGaN/GaN quantum wells (QWs) showed good coincidence with our calculations.

Electrical Characteristics of InGaN/AlGaN and InGaN/GaN MQW Near UV-LEDs

Electrical characteristics of In0.05Ga0.95N/Al0.07Ga0.93N and In0.05Ga0.95N/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) at 400 nm wavelength are measured. It is found that for InGaN/AlGaN MQW LEDs, both ideality factor and parallel resistance are similar to those of InGaN/GaN MQW LEDs, while series resistance is two times larger. It is suggested that the Al0.07Ga0.93N barrier layer did not change crystal quality and electrical characteristic of p-n junction either, but brought larger series resistance. As a result, InGaN/AlGaN MQW LEDs suffer more serious thermal dissipation problem although they show higher light output efficiency.

Effect of annealing on photoluminescence and microstructures of InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well with Mg-doped p-type GaN

InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well structure with Mg-doped p-type GaN was grown by low-pressure metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy. After rapid-thermal-annealing at 700 and 900 degrees C, both the red-shift and the blue-shift of the photoluminescence (PL) peak, the decreased and the enhancement of the PL intensity were observed. The transmission electron microscopic images showed that InGaN multi-quantum-dots-like (MQD-like) structures with dimensions less than 5×10nm were formed in InGaN wells. The changes of PL spectra could be tentatively attributed to the competition between the red-shift mechanism of the quantum-confined Stark effect and the blue-shift mechanism of the quantum size effect due to MQD-like structures.

Influence of Growth Temperature and Trimethylindium Flow of InGaN Wells on Optical Properties of InGaN Multiple Quantum-Well Violet Light-Emitting Diodes

An InGaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) violet-light-emitting diode (LED) is grown by low-pressure metalorganic chemical vapour deposition. It is found that photoluminescence wavelength of the InGaN MQW violet LED is lengthened with increasing growth temperature and with the increasing trimethylindium flow of the InGaN wells. The electroluminescence peak wavelength of the violet LED are about 401 nm with full width at half maximum of 14 nm, and the output power in injection current of 20 mA at room temperature is 4.1 mW.

Transport properties under the influence of finite friction

Using the Langevin Monte Carlo method, the influence of friction on the directed motion of a Brownian particle driven by an external noise source is investigated. The results show that the existence and change of the environment friction influence the establishment and development of the steady motion of a Brownian particle derived by non-equilibrium fluctuation. The most probable correlation time, which corresponds to the maximum current, is inversely proportional to the friction coefficient. The abnormal transition of the current with different friction appears because of the coupling between the effective ratchet potential and coloured noise intensity.