Theoretical studies on ultraviolet nearly lattice-matched BAlGaN/BAlGaN quantum well structures with quaternary BAlGaN barriers

Abstract

Light emission characteristics of BxAlyGa1−x−yN/BAlGaN quantum well (QW) structures with quaternary BAlGaN barrier were investigated using the multiband effective-mass theory. The internal field in the BAlGaN well of the BAlGaN/AlN QW structure is shown to be large (∼10 MV/cm) under the lattice-matched condition (%). On the other hand, the internal field is significantly reduced by using BAlGaN barrier and the peak intensity of the spontaneous emission coefficient of the lattice-matched BAlGaN/BAlGaN QW structure is comparable to that of the conventional BAlGaN/AlN QW structure. We observe that the light intensity of the lattice-matched BAlGaN/BAlGaN QW structure is comparable to that of the conventional BAlGaN/AlN QW structure. Also, we observe that the nearly lattice-matched BAlGaN/BAlGaN QW structure with small strain (0.5%) has about 3 times larger peak intensity than the conventional QW AlGaN/AlN structure. Hence, BAlGaN/BAlGaN QW system could be used as a UV light source with a higher light emission and a higher crystal quality, compared to conventional AlGaN/AlN QW structures with larger strain (1.78%).