III-nitride Devices Research Articles

Etching-free pixel definition in InGaN green micro-LEDs

The traditional plasma etching process for defining micro-LED pixels could lead to significant sidewall damage. Defects near sidewall regions act as non-radiative recombination centers and paths for current leakage, significantly deteriorating device performance. In this study, we demonstrated a novel selective thermal oxidation (STO) method that allowed pixel definition without undergoing plasma damage and subsequent dielectric passivation. Thermal annealing in ambient air oxidized and reshaped the LED structure, such as p-layers and InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells. Simultaneously, the pixel areas beneath the pre-deposited SiO2 layer were selectively and effectively protected. It was demonstrated that prolonged thermal annealing time enhanced the insulating properties of the oxide, significantly reducing LED leakage current. Furthermore, applying a thicker SiO2 protective layer minimized device resistance and boosted device efficiency effectively. Utilizing the STO method, InGaN green micro-LED arrays with 50-, 30-, and 10-µm pixel sizes were manufactured and characterized. The results indicated that after 4 h of air annealing and with a 3.5-μm SiO2 protective layer, the 10-µm pixel array exhibited leakage currents density 1.2 × 10−6 A/cm2 at −10 V voltage and a peak on-wafer external quantum efficiency of ~6.48%. This work suggests that the STO method could become an effective approach for future micro-LED manufacturing to mitigate adverse LED efficiency size effects due to the plasma etching and improve device efficiency. Micro-LEDs fabricated through the STO method can be applied to micro-displays, visible light communication, and optical interconnect-based memories. Almost planar pixel geometry will provide more possibilities for the monolithic integration of driving circuits with micro-LEDs. Moreover, the STO method is not limited to micro-LED fabrication and can be extended to design other III-nitride devices, such as photodetectors, laser diodes, high-electron-mobility transistors, and Schottky barrier diodes.

Investigating the physical mechanism of ion-slicing in AlN and hetero-integrating AlN thin film on Si(100) substrate

Heterogeneously integrating the monocrystal AlN thin films on Si(100) substrates by ion-slicing technique provides a promising high-quality material platform to achieve the monolithic integration of Silicon-based CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) and high-performance III-nitride devices. Single crystalline AlN bulk materials implanted by hydrogen ions (H+) were used to elucidate the physical mechanism of the blistering formation in hydrogen implanted AlN with different annealing process. XTEM characterization was performed to reveal the formation of H-induced microcracks which eventually leads to the layer splitting. Using the ion-slicing technique, the AlN thin films were capitally transferred to Si(100) substrate. The crystal quality and the microstructure of the transferred AlN thin film were characterized thoroughly, indicating its exceptional crystal quality with the full width at half maximum (FWHM) for (002) XRC as low as 93.6 arcsec.

InN nanowire solar cells on Si with amorphous Si interlayer deposited by sputtering

Here, we report the first experimental demonstration of InN nanowire solar cells deposited by RF sputtering with a bandgap energy of 1.78 eV. By adding an amorphous Si (a-Si) buffer to the n-InN/p-Si structure, we have improved the photovoltaic performance of the resulting devices while maintaining their material quality. We have firstly optimized the deposition of Si on Si(100) by DC sputtering, obtaining an amorphous material with bandgap energy of 1.39 eV. Then we have studied the influence of the thickness of the a-Si buffer layer (0–25 nm) on the structural, morphological, electrical, and optical properties of InN nanowires on Si(100) substrates. With the use of a 15-nm buffer, n-InN/a-Si/p-Si nanowire heterojunction solar cells exhibit a promising short-circuit current density of 17 mA/cm2, open circuit voltage of 0.37 V and fill factor of 35.5%, pointing to a power-conversion efficiency of 2.3% under 1-sun (AM 1.5G) illumination. These work demonstrates that the combination of in-situ sputtered a-Si, which could serve as potential passivation layer, and the light trapping enhancement by the nanostructured active layer leads to an improvement of the photovoltaic efficiency of sputtered III-nitride devices.

Growth of Ga0.70In0.30N/GaN Quantum-Wells on a ScAlMgO4 (0001) Substrate with an Ex-Situ Sputtered-AlN Buffer Layer.

This study attempted to improve the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of 580 nm emitting Ga0.70In0.30N/GaN quantum-wells (QWs) through the replacement of a conventional c-sapphire substrate and an in-situ low-temperature GaN (LT-GaN) buffer layer with the ScAlMgO4 (0001) (SCAM) substrate and an ex-situ sputtered-AlN (sp-AlN) buffer layer, simultaneously. To this end, we initially tried to optimize the thickness of the sp-AlN buffer layer by investigating the properties/qualities of an undoped-GaN (u-GaN) template layer grown on the SCAM substrate with the sp-AlN buffer layer in terms of surface morphology, crystallographic orientation, and dislocation type/density. The experimental results showed that the crystallinity of the u-GaN layer grown on the SCAM substrate with the 30 nm thick sp-AlN buffer layer [GaN/sp-AlN(30 nm)/SCAM] was superior to that of the conventional u-GaN template layer grown on the c-sapphire substrate with an LT-GaN buffer layer (GaN/LT-GaN/FSS). Notably, the experimental results showed that the structural properties and crystallinity of GaN/sp-AlN(30 nm)/SCAM were considerably different from those of GaN/LT-GaN/FSS. Specifically, the edge-type dislocation density was approximately two orders of magnitude higher than the screw-/mixed-type dislocation density, i.e., the generation of screw-/mixed-type dislocation was suppressed through the replacement, unlike that of the GaN/LT-GaN/FSS. Next, to investigate the effect of replacement on the subsequent QW active layers, 580 nm emitting Ga0.70In0.30N/GaN QWs were grown on the u-GaN template layers. The IQEs of the samples were measured by means of temperature-dependent photoluminescence efficiency, and the results showed that the replacement improved the IQE at 300 K by approximately 1.8 times. We believe that the samples fabricated and described in the present study can provide a greater insight into future research directions for III-nitride light-emitting devices operating in yellow-red spectral regions.

High-Resolution Optical Three-Axis Tactile Microsensor Based on III-Nitride Devices With Integrated PDMS Bumps

High-Resolution Optical Three-Axis Tactile Microsensor Based on III-Nitride Devices With Integrated PDMS Bumps

Evidence of charged interface states limited scattering in GaN heterostructures

This study provides experimental evidence of charged interface states limited scattering in III-nitride heterostructures. Temperature-dependent Hall measurements and temperature-dependent ID–VG measurements indicate a significant influence of the charged interface states on the electron mobility in different AlGaN/GaN heterostructures where the characteristic of the interface is controlled by modulating the growth conditions. Charged interface states at the AlGaN/GaN heterointerface lead to electron scattering as the distance between the centroid of the two-dimensional electron gas and the interface decreases with increasing electron density. It is observed that a component of experimental Hall mobility, which ranges between 9.2 × 103 and 3.4 × 104 cm2/V s among the three samples, obtained after adding all the scattering events using Matthiessen's rule cannot be explained completely by considering all the conventional scattering mechanisms such as phonon–phonon scattering, interface roughness scattering, and dislocation density scattering. An in-depth analysis reveals a significant scattering of channel electrons by the charged states at the GaN/AlN/AlGaN interface. Furthermore, the estimated interface states from the temperature-dependent subthreshold slopes conducted on the fabricated high electron mobility transistors are in good agreement with the charged interface states extracted from the temperature-dependent Hall measurements. A good understanding on this new scattering mechanism in the GaN heterostructure may help in designing high-performance III-nitride devices in the future.

Thermal phonon modulation of III-nitride semiconductors under strong electric fields

Self-heating effects in high-power III-nitride semiconductor electronics and optoelectronic devices limit their practical applications, while phonon modulation can be used to alleviate heat dissipation problems. In this paper, we report our efforts to suppress macroscopic polarization fields when applying strong electric fields, which affect the phonon frequency. We investigate alterations in phonon frequencies for two materials, 2H-GaN and 2H-AlN, for various electric field strengths ranging from 0.00 V/Å to 0.07 V/Å and 0.00 V/Å to 0.18 V/Å, respectively. We also analyze the changes in the macroscopic dielectric tensor and the BORN effective charge tensor. The calculation results reveal that the vibration frequencies of the longitudinal-optical (LO) A1(LO) mode are decreased by approximately 2 cm−1 for 2H-GaN and 3 cm−1 for 2H-AlN. Our simulation results are consistent with the Raman spectroscopy results of Si-doped 2H-GaN specimens illuminated with 325 nm excitation for a variety of carrier concentrations. This study contributes to a better understanding of the factors influencing phonon behavior, thus offering new methods for optimizing the thermal regulation and dissipation patterns of III-nitride semiconductor materials and devices.

Progress and prospects of III-nitride optoelectronic devices adopting lift-off processes

Lift-off processes have been developed as the enabling technology to free the epitaxial III-nitride thin film from a conventional growth substrate such as sapphire and silicon in order to realize a variety of novel device designs and structures not otherwise possible. An epitaxial lift-off (ELO) process can be adopted to transfer the entire film to an arbitrary foreign substrate to achieve various functions, including enhancement of device performance, improvement of thermal management, and to enable flexibility among others. On the other hand, partial ELO techniques, whereby only a portion of the thin-film is detached from the substrate, can be employed to realize unconventional device structures or geometries, such as apertured, pivoted, and flexible devices, which may be exploited for various photonic structures or optical cavities. This paper reviews the development of different lift-off strategies and processes for III-nitride materials and devices, followed by a perspective on the future directions of this technology.

Wet-based digital etching on GaN and AlGaN

Many advanced III-nitride devices, such as micro-LEDs, vertical FinFETs, and field emitters, require the fabrication of high aspect ratio vertical pillars or nanowires. Two-step etchings combining dry and wet etching steps have been used on vertical devices in the past, but they show poor control in vertical nanostructures with sub-50 nm diameter. In this work, we demonstrate a wet-chemical digital etching on GaN and AlGaN and apply it to both vertical nanostructure scaling and planar etching along the c-axis. In this digital etching process, a mixture of H2SO4 and H2O2 is applied to oxidize the III-nitrides surface, and the oxide layer is then removed by dilute HCl. This digital etching approach can finely sharpen vertical structures and does not require any vacuum or plasma systems, which will enable advanced device structures in the future.

Low Resistance Asymmetric III-Nitride Tunnel Junctions Designed by Machine Learning

The tunnel junction (TJ) is a crucial structure for numerous III-nitride devices. A fundamental challenge for TJ design is to minimize the TJ resistance at high current densities. In this work, we propose the asymmetric p-AlGaN/i-InGaN/n-AlGaN TJ structure for the first time. P-AlGaN/i-InGaN/n-AlGaN TJs were simulated with different Al or In compositions and different InGaN layer thicknesses using TCAD (Technology Computer-Aided Design) software. Trained by these data, we constructed a highly efficient model for TJ resistance prediction using machine learning. The model constructs a tool for real-time prediction of the TJ resistance, and the resistances for 22,254 different TJ structures were predicted. Based on our TJ predictions, the asymmetric TJ structure (p-Al0.7Ga0.3N/i-In0.2Ga0.8N/n-Al0.3Ga0.7N) with higher Al composition in p-layer has seven times lower TJ resistance compared to the prevailing symmetric p-Al0.3Ga0.7N/i-In0.2Ga0.8N/n-Al0.3Ga0.7N TJ. This study paves a new way in III-nitride TJ design for optical and electronic devices.

Preface—JSS Focus Issue on Recent Advances in Wide Bandgap III-Nitride Devices and Solid State Lighting: A Tribute to Isamu Akasaki

Preface—JSS Focus Issue on Recent Advances in Wide Bandgap III-Nitride Devices and Solid State Lighting: A Tribute to Isamu Akasaki

An in situ monitored and controlled etch process to suppress Mg memory effects in MOCVD GaN growth on Si substrate

Mg is the most common p-type dopant in III-nitride devices and is becoming increasingly important in the design and development of transistors for power applications. The diffusion of Mg atoms to adjacent layers during growth has been a persistent problem. We report on a simple method involving in situ etching by hydrogen, the most commonly used carrier gas in nitride growth, for suppressing Mg diffusion. This method can be implemented during growth itself without removing the wafer from the chamber and can be controlled by in situ monitoring. A Mg concentration decay rate of 24 nm/dec, is reported for the etched sample compared to 160 nm/dec for the unetched one. An increase in 2DEG mobility in AlGaN/GaN HEMT structures on silicon substrate from 591 cm2 V−1 s−1 for the unetched sample to 1214 cm2 V−1 s−1 for the etched sample was observed. Capacitance–voltage studies to understand the effect of diffused Mg atoms on conduction channel are also reported.

Van der Waals Epitaxy of III-Nitride Semiconductors Based on 2D Materials for Flexible Applications.

III-nitride semiconductors have attracted considerable attention in recent years owing to their excellent physical properties and wide applications in solid-state lighting, flat-panel displays, and solar energy and power electronics. Generally, GaN-based devices are heteroepitaxially grown on c-plane sapphire, Si (111), or 6H-SiC substrates. However, it is very difficult to release the GaN-based films from such single-crystalline substrates and transfer them onto other foreign substrates. Consequently, it is difficult to meet the ever-increasing demand for wearable and foldable applications. On the other hand, sp2 -bonded two-dimensional (2D) materials, which exhibit hexagonal in-plane lattice arrangements and weakly bonded layers, can be transferred onto flexible substrates with ease. Hence, flexible III-nitride devices can be implemented through such 2D release layers. In this progress report, the recent advances in the different strategies for the growth of III-nitrides based on 2D materials are reviewed, with a focus on van der Waals epitaxy and transfer printing. Various attempts are presented and discussed herein, including the different kinds of 2D materials (graphene, hexagonal boron nitride, and transition metal dichalcogenides) used as release layers. Finally, current challenges and future perspectives regarding the development of flexible III-nitride devices are discussed.

(Invited) Recent Advances in III-Nitride Devices Using Ultrawide Bandgap AlxGa1-Xn Active Layers

III-Nitride devices with high-Al AlxGa1-xN (x>0.4) active layers have the potential of addressing several key application areas. For these high Al-compositions the direct bandgap leads to a cut-off wavelength<290 nm which makes the material ideal for solar blind detectors. Similarly, AlxGa1-xN (x>0.4) multiple quantum wells (MQWs) are used in the active region of the deep ultraviolet (DUV) light emitting diodes. More recently, to take advantage of the higher breakdown field for high voltage devices, several researchers including us have explored Heterojunction Field-Effect Transistors (HFETs) and metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) HFETs with high-Al AlxGa1-xN (x>0.4) channel layers. Currently nearly all the (UWBG) AlGaN devices are fabricated on 3-5 µm thick MOCVD grown high quality AlN/sapphire templates. This choice is dictated by the deep UV optical transparency, the easy availability and the low-cost of sapphire. Increasing the AlN template thickness to larger than 5 µm leads to stress related cracking. The low thermal conductivity of sapphire and this AlN growth thickness limitation leads to device performance limitations especially for high power operation. To avoid this, recently using a pulsed MOCVD approach, we have for the first time succeeded in growing 16 µm thick, crack-free, low-defect AlN template layers on basal plane sapphire substrates. These were then used to deposit epitaxial structures for the AlGaN channel HFET/MOSHFETs. In this presentation we will present studies to establish the role that the high conductivity thick AlN buffers play in improving the devices’ electrical and thermal performance. Recently we have also for the first time conducted optical waveguiding studies at UVC wavelengths. For these studies we fabricated monolithically integrated UVC LEDs, detectors and waveguides on an AlN/sapphire template platform. Optical attenuation coefficient as low as 4.8 cm-1 was measured for Al0.5Ga0.5N waveguide with an AlN clad layer. Details of our integrated device fabrication and optical losses measurements scheme will also be discussed. Acknowledgement: This work was partially supported by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Army Research Office and Office of Naval Research (Monitors: Dr. M. Gerhold. Dr. Paul Maki and Dr. Lynn Petersen).

A Performance Comparison Between $\beta$ -Ga2O3 and GaN HEMTs

In this letter, we report on the quantitative estimates of various metrics of performance for \b{eta}-Ga2O3 based High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) for radio frequency (RF) and power applications and compare them with III-nitride devices. It is found that despite a lower cut-off frequency, \b{eta}- Ga2O3 HEMT is likely to provide higher RF output power compared to GaN-HEMT in the low-frequency regime although a poor thermal conductivity will impose limitations in heat dissipation. On the other hand, a much lower electron mobility will limit the DC switching performance in terms of efficiency and loss although their blocking voltage can be much higher than in GaN.

Observation and mitigation of RF-plasma-induced damage to III-nitrides grown by molecular beam epitaxy

In this work, radio-frequency (RF) plasma-induced damage to III-nitride surfaces and bulk defects is observed and mitigated. It is shown that for InN films, the surface is more sensitive to plasma-induced damage than GaN films, as observed via atomic force microscopy and reflection high energy electron diffraction. In order to isolate any possible plasma-induced damage, a growth window for InN is established, and temperature ranges are determined for other damaging effects which include roughening due to low adatom mobility, InN decomposition, and indium desorption. In situ plasma monitoring and optimization are accomplished with a combination of optical emission spectroscopy as well as a remote Langmuir probe. It is shown that by increasing the plasma nitrogen flow, the positive ion content increases; however, the ion acceleration potential reduces. Additionally, a reduced RF plasma power results in a reduction of atomic nitrogen species. These plasma species and energetic variations result in variations in the bulk unintentional background electron concentrations observed by room temperature Hall effect measurements of ∼1 μm thick InN films. By increasing the nitrogen flow from 2.5 to 7.5 sccm for a constant RF power of 350 W, the background electron concentration decreases by 74% from 1.36 × 1019 cm−3 to 3.54 × 1018 cm−3, while maintaining a smooth surface morphology. Additionally, photoluminescence spectra indicate optical emission energies shift from ∼0.81 to 0.71 eV (closer to the fundamental bandgap of InN) by limiting the damaging plasma species. Finally, conditions are presented to further minimize plasma-induced damage in III-nitride devices.

Performance investigation of steep-slope core–shell nanotube indium nitride electron–hole bilayer tunnel field effect transistor

In this paper, the effects of main physical and structural parameters on the electrical characteristics of indium nitride core–shell nanotube electron–hole bilayer tunnel field effect transistor (NEHBTFET) are comprehensively investigated via simulation study for optimizing the device performance. The proposed structure offers excellent band to band tunneling efficiency and steeper turn-on drain current by providing the tunneling junction normal to the gate electric field between the region of outer shell gate and inner core gate. The simulation results reveal that the on-state current and subthreshold swing of NEHBTFET are greatly improved via expanding the band to band tunneling area along the channel and in the vertical direction in comparison with conventional nanowire TFET with narrow lateral source–channel tunneling junction. The n+–p+ tunneling junction is created electrically in the intrinsic region and a framework of core and shell gate work function engineering are conducted via calculating 2D variation matrix of the on-state current and threshold voltage for optimizing the device performance. The sensitivity of device’s main electrical parameters with respect to the variation of device physical and geometrical parameters reveals that the electrical parameters are highly insensitive to the source doping density which solves the major challenge of low solubility of dopants in III-nitride devices. In addition, the off-state current and subthreshold swings are not affected by the gate length scaling that is an indication of feasibility of this device in nanoscale regime.

(Invited) Top-Down Etching of III-Nitride Nanostructures

Chemical etch processes for III-nitride (AlGaInN) materials and devices are significantly underdeveloped due to its apparent inertness to common wet etchants. To fully realize the potential of the III-nitrides in new electronic and photonic nano and micro device concepts, a more complete knowledge and development of anisotropic and three-dimensional top-down etch techniques are needed. Here, we explore the etch characteristics of GaN and AlGaN based materials using the general geometric principles of crystallographic dissolution processes to enable the prediction of facet-determined etch structures, including high aspect ratio nanowires and nanowalls. We perform the first complete nonpolar orientation-dependent etch rate measurements for GaN, and use them to predict the faceting of pillar structures with good agreement with experiment. We use these developments in wet etching to fabricate functional III-nitride-based optical nanowire and microcavity structures with control over the cross-sectional shape, where faceting enables sidewalls with near atomic-smoothness. Finally, we discuss a new fabrication method, quantum-size controlled photoelectrochemical etching, for the etching of InGaN quantum dots with high size uniformity from planar InGaN films.

Direct lift-off and the piezo-phototronic study of InGaN/GaN heterostructure membrane

Internal polarizations, caused by the intrinsic material properties and lattice mismatch during material epitaxial growth, exist inherently in III-nitrides and limit significantly their practical applications. Here, InGaN/GaN single quantum well (SQW) structure grown on sapphire substrate was directly exfoliated by electrochemical (EC) etching. The separated InGaN/GaN SQW heterostructure membranes (SQW-HMs) exhibit substantial relaxation of internal strain and polarization compared to the as-grown samples. To further modulate/tune the internal polarizations and corresponding opto-electronic properties of the SQW-HMs, the piezo-phototronic effect was introduced by applying external stress on the freestanding membrane under ultraviolet (UV) light illumination. The obtained photoluminescence (PL) intensity can be effectively modulated in different manners under tensile and compressive straining conditions. Energy diagrams of the SQW-HMs under free and straining conditions were carefully analyzed to illustrate the working mechanisms of the piezo-phototronic modulations. This research provides a new approach to optimize the performances of III-nitride devices and expand their further applications in optical communications and optical integration systems.

Dislocation bending and stress evolution in Mg-doped GaN films on Si substrates

P-type doping using Mg is essential for realizing a variety of electronic and optoelectronic III-nitride devices involving hetero-epitaxial thin films that also contain a significant number of dislocations. We report on the effect of Mg incorporation on dislocation and stress evolution during the growth of GaN thin films by using in situ curvature measurements and ex situ transmission electron microscopy. A complete picture involving the interplay between three effects—dopant size effect, dislocation bending, and polarity inversion—is presented. Mg aids dislocation bending, which in turn generates tensile stresses in Mg-doped GaN films. As a result, the compressive stress expected due to the dopant size difference effect can only be discerned clearly in films with dislocation densities below 5 × 109 cm−2. Polarity inversion at doping exceeding 1019 cm−3 is associated with a sharp drop in screw dislocation density. A kinetic stress evolution model has been developed to capture dislocation bending and size difference effects, and a match between calculated bending angle from the model and that measured from TEM images is obtained.