We report the current progress of our development of near-ultraviolet (NUV) III-nitride vertical-cavity LED emitters and avalanche photodetectors grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The III-N emitters are designed to be UV vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers operating at 369.5nm. We describe the development of the growth and processing of an air-gap/AlGaN distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) consisting of five-pairs of quarter-wavelength layers of Al0.12Ga0.88N and air-gap regions created by selective chemical etching. A 4-6λ cavity was employed in the laser structure. We also report on the electrical and optical emission characteristics of these microcavity emitters. The photodetectors are GaN- and AlGaN-based p-i-n avalanche photodiodes (APDs) designed for front-side illumination. We report on the electrical and optical detection characteristics of these photodetectors.
Two different structures of AlGaN/InGaN ultraviolet (UV) multiple quantum wells (MQWs) were grown in a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) system, and their performance under optically pumped stimulated emission were experimentally investigated. During the MOCVD epitaxial growth of the AlGaN/InGaN MQWs, the growth rate of the AlGaN quantum barriers (QBs) was intentionally reduced to improve the surface morphology. Atomic-force microscopy (AFM) images show that the AlGaN QBs have a smooth surface with clear step flow patterns. The surface morphology of InGaN QWs was improved by thermal annealing effect when the growth temperature rose to the one of the AlGaN QBs. With optical confinement layers on both the n- and p-sides, the threshold pumping power density of optical stimulated emission for AlGaN/InGaN MQWs was determined to be 168 kW/cm2. In order to reduce the negative effect of the interface between AlGaN QBs and InGaN QWs, another MQW structure with a larger quantum well thickness was designed and epitaxial grown. The optical investigation of sample B showed a threshold pumping power density of 124 kW/cm2, which is 26% lower than sample A.
We report III-N surface-emitting resonant-cavity light-emitting diodes (RCLEDs) at λ = 375 nm using a novel hybridmirror approach. The hybrid mirrors consist of 5 pairs of air-gap/AlGaN distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) at the bottom side of the vertical cavity and HfO2/SiO2 dielectric DBR (DDBR) on the top to facilitate the formation of a resonant cavity for nitride-based surface light emitting diodes. The air-gap/AlGaN DBR replaces the conventional thick stack of semiconductor DBR to achieve high reflectivity. Hybrid-mirror III-N RCLEDs with airgap/AlGaN DBR mirror were fabricated and the results showed that the III-N RCLEDs achieved high current density operation up to 40 kA/cm2 with a peak emission wavelength atλ = 375 nm and a full-width-half-maximum (FWHM) of 9.3 nm at room temperature.
Optically pumped VCSELs with a 1λ thick optical cavity lasing at 375 nm have been demonstrated using a pulsed 248 nm KrF excimer laser source. To realize a high-reflectivity mirror on the bottom of the cavity, five-period airgap/ Al0.05Ga0.95N DBRs with a large refractive index contrast have been employed while the top mirror was formed by dielectric DBRs consisting of twelve pairs HfO2/SiO2. The lowest threshold incident power density measured at room temperature was estimated to be ~270 kW/cm2. The achieved optically pumped VCSEL demonstrates the possibility that the airgap/AlxGa1-xN DBRs can be used as a mirror for injection laser devices.
Vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) are known to have advantages of lower threshold current operation, circular and low-divergence output beam, and lower temperature sensitivity compared to edge-emitting laser diodes. In conventional VCSELs, the formation of a current aperture plays a vital role in the device characteristics. Low laser thresholds and single-transverse-mode operation would not be possible without a well-defined current aperture to confine carriers to generate photons between the two distributed Bragg reflectors. Since the introduction of the controlled oxidation process for the AlxGa1-xAs material system by Dallesasse and Holonyak in 1989, most VCSELs have employed oxidation for current aperture formation as well as optical confinement and this technique has become one of the most commonly used fabrication techniques for traditional III-V compound semiconductor infrared VCSELs. However, for III-N emitters operating at wavelengths in the ultraviolet to green wavelength range, the formation of Al-based native oxide layers has not proven feasible. As a result, various current-confinement techniques have been studied such as, selective-area growth of buried AlN, oxidizing AlInN, and selective activation of acceptors.
In this work, we report an ion-implantation process which is effective for carrier confinement and defines a current aperture for our III-N ultraviolet microcavity light-emitting diodes (MCLEDs). The devices have peak emission wavelength of ~371.4 nm with the spectral linewidth of 5.1 nm at the highest pulsed current injection level of 15 kA/cm2. Further discussion on the material growth, material characterization, implantation parameters, as well as numerical simulation for structural design will be presented in the conference.
We report our current development progress of ultraviolet vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, which included the development of an electrically conducting n-DBR consisting of 40-pairs of Si-doped quarter-wavelength layers of Al0.12Ga0.88N and GaN. A peak reflectivity of 91.6% at 368 nm was measured and a series resistance of 17.7Ω was extracted near the maximum measured current of 100 mA. Furthermore, a micro-cavity light emitting diode was demonstrated by utilizing the established n-DBR. A 2λ cavity was subsequently grown on the 40-pair Al0.12Ga0.88N/GaN n-DBR and a peak wavelength of 371.4 nm was observed with spectral linewidth of 5.8 nm.
A 245.3 nm deep ultraviolet optically pumped AlGaN based multiple-quantum-well laser operating at room temperature is described. Epitaxial growth was performed by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on a c-plane bulk AlN substrate at a growth temperature of ~ 1130 °C. The wafer was fabricated into cleaved bars with a cavity length of ~1.45 mm and the lasing threshold was determined to be 297 kW/cm2 under pulsed 193 nm ArF excimer laser excitation. A further ~20% reduction in threshold pumping power density was observed with six pairs of SiO2/HfO2 distributed Bragg reflector deposited at the rear side of facets.
Data are presented for AlGaN-AlN multiple-quantum-well optically pumped lasers operating at 300K. The structures were grown by MOCVD on bulk AlN substrates and were fabricated into cleaved bars with a cavity length ~1mm. The epitaxial structures consist of ten 3 nm AlGaN quantum wells with 5 nm AlGaN barriers and an AlN buffer layer deposited on a (0001) AlN substrate at a growth temperature 1155 ºC. The bars were photopumped under pulsed conditions at 300K with a 193nm excimer laser. The threshold optical pump power is 455 kW/cm2 and laser emission is observed at 247 nm.
Blue laser diode (LD) structures with GaN waveguide layers and with In0.03Ga0.97N waveguide layers were grown. A
comparison study showed In0.03Ga0.97N waveguide layers significantly enhance the LD performance. The mechanism
behind this was investigated using reciprocal space mapping of X-ray diffraction and time-resolved
cathodoluminescence measurements. Room-temperature lasing of laser diodes at 454.6 nm was realized for LD structure
with In0.03Ga0.97N waveguide layers.
Wide-bandgap GaN-based avalanche photodetectors (APDs) are important for photodetectors operating in UV spectral
region. For the growth of GaN-based heteroepitaxial layers on lattice-mismatched substrates such as sapphire and SiC, a
high density of defects is introduced, thereby causing device failure by premature microplasma breakdown before the
electric field reaches the level of the bulk avalanche breakdown field, which has hampered the development of III-nitride
based APDs. In this study, we investigate the growth and characterization of GaN and AlGaN-based APDs on bulk GaN
and AlN substrates. Epitaxial layers of GaN and AlxGa1-xN p-i-n ultraviolet avalanche photodiodes were grown by
metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). Improved crystalline and structural quality of epitaxial layers was
achieved by employing optimum growth parameters on low-dislocation-density bulk substrates in order to minimize the
defect density in epitaxially grown materials. GaN and AlGaN APDs were fabricated into 30μm- and 50μm-diameter
circular mesas and the electrical and optoelectronic characteristics were measured. APD epitaxial structure and device
design, material growth optimization, material characterizations, device fabrication, and device performance
characteristics are reported.
We report new experimental and theoretical findings relating the design of dopant profile to the bandwidth and optical saturation power of high speed InGaAs/InP unity gain photodetectors. We demonstrate significant improvements in each of these performance metrics by means of quasi-unipolar operation, and
interpret results on the basis of full band ensemble Monte Carlo simulation.
Conventional models of the time response of avalanche photodiodes (APDs) assume that carriers travel uniformly at their saturated drift velocity, vsat. To test the validity of this drift velocity assumption (DVA) the model was used to compute the distribution of exit times of electrons generated in an avalanche pulse and the results were compared with those of Monte-Carlo (MC) simulations. The comparison demonstrates that, while the DVA is valid for thick (1um) avalanching regions, it does not take account of non-equilibrium effects which occur in thin avalanching regions, nor of the effects of diffusion. As a consequence, the DVA model may increasingly underestimate the speed of APDs as the width of the avalanche region is reduced.
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