Piezoelectric field in highly stressed GaN-based LED on Si (1 1 1) substrate

Abstract

Stress states in GaN epilayers grown on Si (111) and c-plane sapphire, and their effects on built-in piezoelectric field induced by compressive stress in InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well (MQW) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were investigated using the electroreflectance (ER) spectroscopic technique. Relatively large tensile stress is observed in GaN epilayers grown on Si (111), while a small compressive stress appears in the film grown on c-plane sapphire. The InGaN/GaN MQWs of LED on c-plane sapphire substrate has a higher piezoelectric field than the MQWs of LEDs on Si (111) substrate by about 1.04MV/cm. The large tensile stress due to lattice mismatch with Si (111) substrate is regarded as external stress. The external tensile stress from the Si substrate effectively compensates for the compressive stress developed in the active region of the InGaN/GaN MQWs, thus reducing the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) by attenuating the piezoelectric polarization from the InGaN layer.