Ultraviolet Laser SQUID Microscope for GaN Blue Light Emitting Diode Testing

Abstract

We carried out non-contacting measurements of photocurrent distributions in GaN blue light emitting diode (LED) chips using our newly developed ultraviolet (UV) laser SQUID microscope. The UV light generates the photocurrent, and then the photocurrent induces small magnetic fields around the chip. An off-axis arranged HTS-SQUID magnetometer is employed to detect a vector magnetic field whose typical amplitude is several hundred femto-tesla. Generally, it is difficult to obtain Ohmic contacts for p-type GaN because of the low hole concentration in the p-type epitaxial layer and the lack of any available metal with a higher work function compared with the p-type GaN. Therefore, a traditional probecontacted electrical test is difficult to conduct for wide band gap semiconductors without an adequately annealed electrode. Using the UV-laser SQUID microscope, the photocurrent can be measured without any electrical contact. We show the photocurrent vector map which was reconstructed from measured magnetic fields data. We also demonstrate how we found the position of a defect of the electrical short circuits in the LED chip.