InGaN Active Layer Research Articles

Porous GaN Nanopyramids: Advancing Beyond Conventional Nanostructures for High‐Brightness InGaN/GaN Quantum Wells Emission

AbstractGaN nanostructures hold significant promise in advancing nanoscale light‐emitting devices. However, significant progress remains elusive, possibly due to the absence of innovative approaches. Beyond the smaller size of GaN nanostructures, the main interest lies in growing InGaN active layers on semi‐ and non‐polar orientations. Nevertheless, it is evident that while leveraging such a method holds initial promise, this approach may eventually reach its limits, prompting the need for fresh perspectives. In this manuscript, electrochemical etching is utilized to fabricate porous GaN nanopyramids. Given the absence of prior studies on electrochemical etching of GaN nanostructures, its etching behavior is investigated, revealing its selectivity concerning doping concentration and geometry. Furthermore, how the choice of electrolyte can differently impact the optical response of the etched template is explored. Subsequently, an InGaN/GaN quantum wells shell is grown as the active region. The significance of the approach is evidenced by a tenfold enhancement in photoluminescence emission. Porous nanopyramids demonstrate a higher internal quantum efficiency of 44.7% and faster radiative recombination time. Additionally, finite difference time domain simulation reveals a twofold increase in light extraction efficiency. This research will lead the way toward the development of a new class of nanostructures offering potential advancements in optoelectronic devices.

Spontaneously Integrated Multicolor InGaN Micro‐Light‐Emitting Diodes for Spectrum‐Controllable Broadband Light Sources

Spontaneously integrated multicolor InGaN micro‐light‐emitting diodes with a microstripe topography achieve selective electrical operation with four different color emissions: green, bluish‐green, bluish‐purple, and purple. The entire microstripe displays broadband emissions because the stripe topography with a convex lens‐like cross section induces a continuous emission wavelength gradient in the overgrown InGaN active layers. Since each wavelength component is distributed along the stripe direction, multiple narrow p‐electrodes are positioned side by side across the stripe width. This design supports selective current injection into the corresponding local areas. This work represents an important step for realizing broadband visible light emitters where individual wavelength components comprising the broad spectra can be modulated and switched independently.

Red Emission of Well‐Ordered InGaN/GaN Nanocolumn Arrays on Si (111) Substrates Grown via Nanotemplate Selective‐Area Growth

Herein, triangular‐lattice nanopillar templates are fabricated on sputter‐deposited AlN/Si (111) substrates. Nanotemplate selective‐area growth via radiofrequency‐plasma‐assisted molecular beam epitaxy is employed to grow GaN nanocolumns on the nanopillars. Well‐ordered uniform GaN nanocolumn arrays are obtained by inserting a migration‐enhanced‐epitaxy grown AlN/AlGaN buffer layer, thereby aligning the polarity of GaN to Ga‐polar. Subsequently, bulk InGaN active layers are grown on top of the GaN nanocolumns with increasing growth time (tg = 10–20 min). In the initial stage of growth (tg = 10 min), low‐In‐content InGaN grows on the edges of the six‐sided pyramidal top of the GaN nanocolumns. As the growth progresses, low‐In‐composition InGaN fills the sides between InGaN on the edges, while high‐In‐composition InGaN rapidly grows on the top of the c‐plane nanocolumns. High‐angle annular dark‐field scanning transmission electron microscopy reveals the formation of an InGaN core, covered with a low‐In‐composition InGaN shell, on the top of the nanocolumns. At tg = 20 min, the photoluminescence spectrum exhibits a peak at 669 nm with a full width at half maximum value of 51.7 nm. Thus, the proposed method is suitable for growing red‐light‐emitting well‐ordered InGaN/GaN nanocolumn arrays on Si.

High‐Efficiency InGaN Red Mini‐LEDs on Sapphire Toward Full‐Color Nitride Displays: Effect of Strain Modulation

AbstractInGaN red light emitting diode (LED) is one of the crucial bottlenecks that must be broken through to realize high‐resolution full‐color mini/micro‐LED displays. The efficiency of InGaN LEDs drops rapidly as the emission spectra go from blue/green to red range due to the poor quality of high‐indium‐content InGaN materials. Here, high‐performance InGaN red LEDs on sapphire grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition through strain modulation are reported. A composite buffer layer is proposed to increase the surface lattice constant of GaN and hence successfully enhances the indium incorporation efficiency of the following InGaN active layers. Consequently, a high‐efficiency InGaN red mini‐LED chip (mesa area: 100 × 200 µm2) with a peak wavelength of 629 nm and an external quantum efficiency of 7.4% is realized. Finally, a full‐color nitride mini‐LED display panel with 74.1% coverage of Rec.2020 color gamut by using the InGaN red mini‐LED chips is fabricated. The study signifies the great potentials of full‐nitrides high‐resolution full‐color mini/micro‐LED displays.

Red emission from InGaN active layer grown on nanoscale InGaN pseudosubstrates

We demonstrated nanoplatelet In x Ga1−x N pseudosubstrates with In content varying from 0 to 0.3 on low-dislocation-density GaN substrates. These nanoplatelets efficiently relax in-plane strain, thus allowing for the use of a thick active layer to reduce built-in polarization. The 15 nm thick InGaN active layers grown under the same conditions on these nanoplatelets showed a remarkable cathodoluminescence redshift from 460 to 617 nm, suggesting enhanced In incorporation efficiency in InGaN nanoplatelets with higher In content. Moreover, the 617 nm-emitting sample presented an imperceptible blueshift under excitation-power-dependent photoluminescence, indicating a weak polarization field introduced by the high-In-content pseudosubstrates and the thick active layer.

Pulsed Sputtering Preparation of InGaN Multi-Color Cascaded LED Stacks for Large-Area Monolithic Integration of RGB LED Pixels

Micro-LEDs have been attracting attention as a potential candidate for the next generation of display technology. Here we demonstrate the feasibility of large-area monolithic integration of multi-color InGaN micro-LEDs via pulsed sputtering deposition (PSD) and a standard photolithographical technique. The PSD allows for sequential epitaxial growth of blue and green InGaN LED stacks connected with the GaN based tunneling junction. The tunneling junctions serve as protective layers on p-type GaN against the dry etching damage and hole injection layers in each blue and green emission InGaN active layer. The tunneling junction-connected multi-color InGaN LED stack contributes to the high-density and large-area monolithic integration of RGB micro-LEDs using standard photolithography and the ICP-dry etching method.

Visualization of bandgap energy fluctuation in InGaN quantum wells

Cathodoluminescence (CL) emission from the InGaN multi-quantum well structure was analyzed using transmission electron microscopy-CL. The CL panchromatic images indicated the light emission intensity from the InGaN active layers was inhomogeneous. Hyper-spectral image analysis of the CL signals revealed the wavelength of the emitted light was non-uniform in the active layers, which is the origin of the light emission inhomogeneity. The band gap energy plot constructed from the wavelength analysis visualized energy hump regions, where the carriers were preferentially localized and recombined to emit light.

InGaN Resonant-Cavity Light-Emitting Diodes with Porous and Dielectric Reflectors

InGaN based resonant-cavity light-emitting diode (RC-LED) structures with an embedded porous-GaN/n-GaN distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a top dielectric Ta2O5/SiO2 DBR were demonstrated. GaN:Si epitaxial layers with high Si-doping concentration (n+-GaN:Si) in the 20-period n+-GaN/n-GaN stacked structure were transformed into a porous-GaN/n-GaN DBR structure through the doping-selective electrochemical wet etching process. The central wavelength and reflectivity were measured to be 434.3 nm and 98.5% for the porous DBR and to be 421.3 nm and 98.1% for the dielectric DBR. The effective 1λ cavity length at 432nm in the InGaN resonant-cavity consisted of a 30 nm-thick Ta2O5 spacer and a 148 nm-thick InGaN active layer that was analyzed from the angle-resolved photoluminescence (PL) spectra. In the optical pumping PL spectra, non-linear emission intensity and linewidths reducing effect, from 6.5 nm to 0.7 nm, were observed by varying the laser pumping power. Directional emission pattern and narrow linewidth were observed in the InGaN active layer with bottom porous DBR, top dielectric DBR, and the optimum spacer layer to match the short cavity structure.

On the elastic properties of INGAN/GAN LED structures

In this study, three InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode (LED) structures with five periods are investigated grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technique. During growth of these three samples, active layer growth temperatures are adjusted as 650, 667 and 700 °C. These structures are grown on sapphire (Al2O3) wafer as InGaN/GaN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) between n-GaN and p-AlGaN + GaN contact layers. During growth, pressure and flux ratio of all sources are kept constant for all samples. Only temperature of InGaN active layer is changed. These structures are analyzed with high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) technique. Their surface morphologies are investigated with atomic force microscopy (AFM). Reciprocal space mapping (RSM) is made different from classical HR-XRD analyses. Using this method, mixed peaks belonging to InGaN, AlGaN and GaN layers are seen more clearly and their full width at half maximum (FWHM) values is determined with better accuracy. With FWHM gained from RSM and Williamson–Hall (W–H) method based on universal elastic coefficients of the material, particle size D (nm), uniform stress σ (GPa), strain e and anisotropic energy density u (kJ m−3) parameters for the samples are calculated. The results are compared with literature. On the other hand, to have an idea about the accuracy of the results AFM images are examined. Parameters calculated showed differences but it is seen that the largest particle size is gained for GaN and the smallest is gained for AlGaN. For all parameters, it is seen that they increase for GaN layer and decrease for AlGaN layer with increasing temperature. For InGaN layer parameters, they showed both increasing and decreasing or decreasing and increasing behavior harmonically with an increase in temperature. Results showed that they are compatible with literature. Results gained from Scherrer and W–H are very near to each other.

Effects of saturation of nonradiative recombination centers on internal quantum efficiency in InGaN light-emitting diodes

The internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of InGaN near-UV light-emitting diodes with different threading dislocation densities (TDDs) was studied by using excitation power density and temperature-dependent photoluminescence spectroscopy. The IQE was evaluated as functions of excitation density and temperature under band-to-band and selective excitation of the InGaN active layers. The IQE curves under weak excitation densities were analyzed with a rate equation model of radiative and nonradiative recombination of excitons, in which the exciton localization and the filling of nonradiative recombination centers (NRCs) were considered. Based on the analysis, we discussed the effects of filling NRCs on the IQE as functions of TDD and temperature and we clarified that the increase in the IQE at lower excitation densities was caused by filling NRCs. The analysis also indicated whether the maximum IQE value reached 100% at low temperatures.

In0.15Ga0.85N visible-light metal-semiconductor-metal photodetector with GaN interlayers deposited by pulsed NH3

InGaN visible-light metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors with GaN interlayers deposited by pulsed NH3 were fabricated and characterized. By periodically inserting the GaN thin interlayers, the surface morphology of InGaN active layer is improved and the phase separation is suppressed. At 5 V bias, the dark current reduced from 7.0 × 10−11 A to 7.0 × 10−13 A by inserting the interlayers. A peak responsivity of 85.0 mA/W was measured at 420 nm and 5 V bias, corresponding to an external quantum efficiency of 25.1%. The insertion of GaN interlayers also lead to a sharper spectral response cutoff.

Fabrication of selective-area growth InGaN LED by mixed-source hydride vapor-phase epitaxy

We prepared InGaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with the active layers grown from a mixed source of Ga–In–N materials on an n-type GaN substrate by a selective-area growth method and three fabrication steps: photolithography, epitaxial layer growth, and metallization. The preparation followed a previously developed experimental process using apparatus for mixed-source hydride vapor-phase epitaxy (HVPE), which consisted of a multi-graphite boat, for insulating against the high temperature and to control the growth rate of epilayers, filled with the mixed source on the inside and a radio-frequency (RF) heating coil for heating to a high temperature (T > 900 °C) and for easy control of temperature outside the source zone. Two types of LEDs were prepared, with In compositions of 11.0 and 6.0% in the InGaN active layer, and room-temperature electroluminescence measurements exhibited a main peak corresponding to the In composition at either 420 or 390 nm. The consecutive growth of InGaN LEDs by the mixed-source HVPE method provides a technique for the production of LEDs with a wide range of In compositions in the active layer.

Influence of Indium Content on the Unintentional Background Doping and Device Performance of InGaN/GaN Multiple-Quantum-Well Solar Cells

We experimentally investigate the influence of indium composition on the photovoltaic performance of InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) solar cells. Three MQW structures with different In content are grown via metal-organic chemical vapor deposition, and then fabricated into solar cell devices. The solar cells with lower In content show stronger photovoltaic response, which may be ascribed to both smaller piezoelectric fields in InGaN well layers and better material quality of MQW active region. In addition, based on the capacitance–voltage measurements by which the profiles of apparent carrier concentration can be determined, we find that in the higher-In-content solar cells the background electron concentration in unintentionally doped InGaN QWs is higher. Consequently, the effective volume of active region, or the width of depletion region, may become smaller at zero bias and correspondingly the light absorption by InGaN active layers is reduced. This may be attributed to the increased nitrogen vacancy-related defects which are easier induced into In-rich InGaN alloys as a source of shallow donors.

InGaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes Grown on a Micro/Nanoscale Hybrid Patterned Sapphire Substrate.

A hybrid patterned sapphire substrate (hybrid-PSS) was prepared using an anodic aluminum oxide etching mask to transfer nanopatterns onto a conventional patterned sapphire substrate with microscale patterns (bare-PSS). The threading dislocation (TD) suppression of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on a hybrid-PSS (HP-LED) exhibits a smaller reverse leakage current compared with that of LEDs grown on a bare-PSS (BP-LED). The strain-free GaN buffer layer and fully strained InGaN active layer were evidenced by cross-sectional Raman spectra and reciprocal space mapping of the X-ray diffraction intensity for both samples. The calculated piezoelectric fields for both samples are close, implying that the quantum-confined Stark effect was not a dominant mechanism influencing the electroluminescence (EL) peak wavelength under a high injection current. The bandgap shrinkage effect of the InGaN well layer was considered to explain the large red-shifted EL peak wavelength under high injection currents. The estimated LED chip temperatures rise from room temperature to 150 °C and 75 °C for BP-LED and HP-LED, respectively, at a 600-mA injection current. This smaller temperature rise of the LED chip is attributed to the increased contact area between the sapphire and the LED structural layer because of the embedded nanopattern. Although the chip generates more heat at high injection currents, the accumulated heat can be removed to outside the chip effectively. The high diffuse reflection (DR) rate of hybrid-PSS increases the escape probability of photons, resulting in an increase in the viewing angle of the LEDs from 130° to 145°. The efficiency droop was reduced from 46% to 35%, effects which can be attributed to the elimination of TDs and strain relaxation by embedded nanopatterns. In addition, the light output power of HP-LED at 360-mA injection currents exhibits a ∼ 22.3% enhancement, demonstrating that hybrid-PSSs are beneficial to apply in high-power LEDs.

Formation properties of an InGaN active layer for high-efficiency InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well-nanowire light-emitting diodes

Nitride-based nanowires (NWs) have several advantages, such as flexibility in choosing a substrate, easy fabrication, large light-emitting area, no internal electric field, enhanced light extraction, and reduced defects by strain relief, that are useful for enhancing the efficiency of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Here, we report how crucial the formation properties of the InGaN active layer are for enhancing the efficiency of core-shell InGaN/GaN multi-quantum-well (MQW)-NW LEDs that are selectively grown on oxide templates with perfectly-circular hole patterns. The nanostructures are analyzed for two types of LEDs, one containing defect-free MQW active layer and the other containing MQW layer with defects by using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The I-V curve of the defect-free LED shows a rectifying behavior with an on/off ratio of ~109, typical of a diode, and the off-state leakage current of the LED with defects is much larger than that of the defect-free LED, resulting in brighter electroluminescence from the latter device. These results suggest that well-defined nonpolar InGaN/GaN MQW-NWs can be utilized for the realization of high-performance LEDs.

InGaN Light-Emitting Diodes with an Embedded Nanoporous GaN Distributed Bragg Reflectors.

InGaN light emitting diodes (LED) structure with an embedded 1/4λ-stack nanoporous-GaN/undoped-GaN distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR) structure have been demonstrated. Si-heavily doped GaN epitaxial layers (n+-GaN) in the 12-period n+-GaN/u-GaN stack structure are transformed into low refractive index nanoporous GaN structure through the doping-selective electrochemical wet etching process. The central wavelength of the nanoporous DBR structure was located at 442.3 nm with a 57 nm linewidth and a 97.1% peak reflectivity. The effective cavity length (6.0λ), the effective penetration depth (278 nm) in the nanoporous DBR structure, and InGaN active layer matching to Fabry-Pérot mode order 12 were observed in the far-field photoluminescence radiative spectra. High electroluminescence emission intensity and line-width narrowing effect were measured in the DBR-LED compared with the non-treated LED structure. Non-linear emission intensity and line-width reducing effect, from 11.8 nm to 0.73 nm, were observed by increasing the laser excited power. Resonant cavity effect was observed in the InGaN LED with bottom nanoporous-DBR and top GaN/air interface.

Enhanced light output power of InGaN-based amber LEDs by strain-compensating AlN/AlGaN barriers

We investigated the effect of a combined AlN/Al0.03Ga0.97N barrier on InGaN-based amber light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy. InGaN-based multiple quantum wells with a combined AlN/Al0.03Ga0.97N barrier showed intense photoluminescence with a narrow full-width at half-maximum. The amber LEDs with a combined AlN/Al0.03Ga0.97N barrier achieved a light output power enhanced approximately 2.5-fold at 20mA compared to that of the LED with a combined AlN/GaN barrier, owing to the reduction of defects in InGaN active layers. Thus, the efficiency of high-In-content InGaN-based LEDs can be improved in the spectrum range of amber.

On the uncertainty of the Auger recombination coefficient extracted from InGaN/GaN light-emitting diode efficiency droop measurements

III-nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs) suffer from a severe efficiency reduction with increasing injection current (droop). Auger recombination is often seen as primary cause of this droop phenomenon. The corresponding Auger recombination coefficient C is typically obtained from efficiency measurements using mathematical models. However, C coefficients reported for InGaN active layers vary over two orders of magnitude. We here investigate this uncertainty and apply successively more accurate models to the same efficiency measurement, thereby revealing the strong sensitivity of the Auger coefficient to quantum well properties such as electron-hole ratio, electric field, and hot carrier escape.

Improvement of strained InGaN solar cell performance with a heavily doped n+‐GaN substrate

We simulated III–V nitride heterojunction solar cells with a Mg‐doped GaN/intrinsic InGaN/Si‐doped GaN structure. We investigated the threshold dislocation density, the carrier lifetime, and the strain in the InGaN active layer. The conversion efficiency was sensitive to carrier lifetime limited by Shockely–Read recombination rather than the dislocation density. The electric field induced by the piezoelectric effect in the InGaN layer on +c polarity GaN was opposite to that in the depletion region. The recombination of photo‐generated carriers in the p‐GaN/i‐InGaN/ n‐GaN solar cell structure took place dominantly at the i/n interface even at 0 V, and the performance was remarkably degraded. It was found that this negative influence of the piezoelectric effect was reduced by a heavy doping of more than 3 × 1019 cm−3 into the n+‐GaN layer at the interface.

Abnormal selective area growth of irregularly-shaped GaN structures on the apex of GaN pyramids and its application for wide spectral emission

We report on the growth and the characterization of three-dimensional randomly-shaped InGaN/GaN structures selectively grown on the apex of GaN pyramids for the purpose of enlarging the emission spectral range. We found that the variations in the shape and the size of the three-dimensional GaN structures depend on the growth temperature and the surface area for selective growth under intentional turbulence in the gas stream. The selectively grown GaN structures grown at 1020 °C have irregular shape, while the samples grown at 1100 °C have rather uniform hexagonal pyramidal shapes. Irregularly shaped GaN structures were also obtained on the apex of GaN pyramids when the SiO2 mask was removed to 1/10 of the total height of the underlying GaN pyramid. When only 1/5 of the SiO2 mask was removed, however, the selectively grown GaN structures had similar hexagonal pyramidal shapes resembling those of the underlying GaN pyramids. The CL (Cathodoluminescence) spectra of the InGaN layers grown on the randomly shaped GaN structures showed a wide emission spectral range from 388 to 433 nm due to the non-uniform thickness and spatially inhomogeneous indium composition of the InGaN layers. This new selective growth method might have great potential for applications of non-phosphor white light emitting diodes (LEDs) with optimized growth conditions for InGaN active layers of high indium composition and with optimum process for fabrication of electrodes for electrical injection.