InGaN/GaN p-i-n solar cells,each with an undoped In0.12Ga0.88N absorption layer,are grown on c-plane sapphire substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition.The effects of the thickness and dislocation density of the absorption layer on the collection efficiency of InGaN-based solar cells are analyzed,and the experimental results demonstrate that the thickness of the InGaN layer and the dislocation density significantly affect the performance.An optimized InGaNbased solar cell with a peak external quantum efficiency of 57% at a wavelength of 371 nm is reported.The full width at half maximum of the rocking curve of the(0002) InGaN layer is 180 arcsec.
This paper investigates the major structural parameters,such as crystal quality and strain state of (001)-oriented GaN thin films grown on sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition,using an in-plane grazing incidence x-ray diffraction technique.The results are analysed and compared with a complementary out-of-plane xray diffraction technique.The twist of the GaN mosaic structure is determined through the direct grazing incidence measurement of (100) reflection which agrees well with the result obtained by extrapolation method.The method for directly determining the in-plane lattice parameters of the GaN layers is also presented.Combined with the biaxial strain model,it derives the lattice parameters corresponding to fully relaxed GaN films.The GaN epilayers show an increasing residual compressive stress with increasing layer thickness when the two dimensional growth stage is established,reaching to a maximum level of-0.89 GPa.
In situ optical reflectivity measurements are employed to monitor the GaN epilayer growth process above a low-temperature GaN buffer layer on a c-plane sapphire substrate by metalorganic chemical vapour deposition.It is found that the lateral growth of the GaN islands and their coalescence are promoted in the initial growth stage if optimized nitridation time and temperature are selected when the substrate is pre-exposed to ammonia.As confirmed by atomic force microscopy observations,the quality of the GaN epilayers is closely dependent on the surface morphology of the nitridated buffer layer,especially grain size and nucleation density.
To form low-resistance Ohmic contact to p-type GaN, InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light emitting diode wafers are treated with boiled aqua regia prior to Ni/Au (5 nm/5 nm) film deposition. The surface morphology of wafers and the current-voltage characteristics of fabricated light emitting diode devices are investigated. It is shown that surface treatment with boiled aqua regia could effectively remove oxide from the surface of the p-GaN layer, and reveal defect-pits whose density is almost the same as the screw dislocation density estimated by x-ray rocking curve measurement. It suggests that the metal atoms of the Ni/Au transparent electrode of light emitting diode devices may diffuse into the p-GaN layer along threading dislocation lines and form additional leakage current channels. Therefore, the surface treatment time with boiled aqua regia should not be too long so as to avoid the increase of threading dislocation-induced leakage current and the degradation of electrical properties of light emitting diodes.
High-quality and nearly crack-free GaN epitaxial layer was obtained by inserting a single AlGaN interlayer between GaN epilayer and high-temperature AlN buffer layer on Si (111) substrate by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. This paper investigates the effect of AlGaN interlayer on the structural properties of the resulting GaN epilayer. It confirms from the optical microscopy and Raman scattering spectroscopy that the AlGaN interlayer has a remarkable effect on introducing relative compressive strain to the top GaN layer and preventing the formation of cracks. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy analysis reveal that a significant reduction in both screw and edge threading dislocations is achieved in GaN epilayer by the insertion of AlGaN interlayer. The process of threading dislocation reduction in both AlGaN interlayer and GaN epilayer is demonstrated.
This paper reports that Al1 xInxN epilayers were grown on GaN template by metalorganic chemical vapor de-position with an In content of 7%-20%. X-ray diffraction results indicate that all these Al1 xInxN epilayers have a relatively low density of threading dislocations. Rutherford backscattering/channeling measurements provide the exact compositional information and show that a gradual variation in composition of the Al1 xInxN epilayer happens along the growth direction. The experimental results of optical reflection clearly show the bandgap energies of Al1 xInxN epilayers. A bowing parameter of 6.5 eV is obtained from the compositional dependence of the energy gap. The cathodoluminescence peak energy of the Al1 xInxN epilayer is much lower than its bandgap, indicating a relatively large Stokes shift in the Al1 xInxN sample.
A violet laser diode (LD) structure is grown on a free-standing c-plane GaN substrate and 4 μm×800 μm ridge waveguide LDs are fabricated.The electrical and the optical characteristics of LDs under different facet-coating and chip-mounting conditions are investigated under pulse mode operation.The active region temperatures of p-side up and p-side down mounted LDs are calculated with different injection currents.The calculated thermal resistances of p-side up and p-side down mounted LDs are 4.6 K/W and 3 K/W,respectively.The threshold current of the p-side down mounted LD is much lower than that of the p-side up mounted LD.The blue shift of the emission wavelength with increasing injection current is observed only for the LD with p-side down mounting configuration,due to the more efficient heat dissipation.
A method to calculate the reflectivity of the coated cavity facet was proposed, and the distribution of the optical power near the two coated cavity facets was calculated for GaN-based laser diodes. A new design method for reducing the optical power at the two cavity facets without changing the output power of laser diodes was discussed, which is helpful to optimize the cavity facet coating and raise the threshold current at which catastrophic optical damage occurs.
The influences of polarization and p-region doping concentration on the photocurrent response of Al0.4Ga0.6N/Al0.4Ga0.6N/Al0.65Ga0.35N p–i–n avalanche photodetector are studied in a wide range of reverse bias voltages.The simulation results indicate that the photocurrent under high inverse bias voltage decreases with the increase of polarization effect,but increases rapidly with the increase of effective doping concentration in p-type region.These phenomena are analyzed based on the calculations of the intensity and distribution of the electric field.A high p-region doping concentration in the p–i–n avalanche photodetector is shown to be important for the efficient compensation for the detrimental polarization-induced electrostatic field.
