We report on the fabrication of device-quality AlN heterostructures grown on SiC for high-temperature electronic devices. The AlN films were grown by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at substrate temperatures ranging from 25 °C (room temperature) to 1000 °C. The as-grown films were investigated using x-ray diffraction, Rutherford backscattering specttroscopy, ion channeling, atomic force microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The AlN films grown above 700 °C were highly c-axis oriented with rocking curve FWHM of 5 to 6 arc-min. The ion channeling minimum yields near the surface region for the AlN films were ∼2 to 4%, indicating their high degree of crystallinity. TEM studies indicated that AlN films were epitaxial and single crystalline in nature with a large number of stacking faults as a results of lattice mismatch and growth induced defects. The surface roughness for the films was about 0.5 nm, which is close to the unit cell height of the AlN. Epitaxial TiN ohmic contacts were also developed on SiC, GaN, and AlN by in-situ PLD. Epitaxial TiN/AlN/SiC MIS capacitors with gate areas of 4 * 10−4 cm2 were fabricated, and high-temperature current-voltage (I-V) characteristics were studied up to 450 °C. We have measured leakage current densities of low 10−8 A/cm2 at room temperature, and have mid 10−3 A/cm2 at 450°C under a field of 2 MV/cm.

GaN-based metal-ferroelectric-semiconductor (MFS) structure has been fabricated by using ferroelectric Pb(Zr0.53Ti0.47)O3 (PZT) instead of conventional oxides as gate insulators. The GaN and PZT films in the MFS structures have been characterized by various methods such as photoluminescence (PL), wide-angle X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD). The Electric properties of GaN MFS structure with different oxide thickness have been characterized by high-frequency C-V measurement. When the PZT films are as thick as 1 μm, the GaN active layers can approach inversion under the bias of 15V, which can not be observed in the traditional GaN MOS structures. When the PZT films are about 100 nm, the MFS structures can approach inversion just under 5V. All the marked improvements of C-V behaviors in GaN MFS structures are mainly attributed to the high dielectric constant and large polarization of the ferroelectric gate oxide.

Acceptor (Mg)-doped AlGaN/GaN heterostructures were grown via MOVPE and compared to similarly doped GaN standard films grown in the same reactor. Chemical analysis of the films, via secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), revealed comparable Mg concentrations of ∼2×1019 atoms/cm3 in all films. The Mg-doped GaN standard sample had a sheet conductance of 7-μS compared to a sheet conductance of 20-μS for an AlGaN/GaN heterostructure. The sheet conductance of the AlGaN/GaN heterostructures was higher due to piezoelectric acceptor doping and modulation doping effects in addition to conventional Mg acceptor doping.

The low-frequency noise in GaN-based Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Heterostructure Field Effect Transistors (MOS-HFETs) and HFETs on sapphire and n-SiC substrates were studied. Hooge parameter at zero gate bias was calculated about 8 × 10−4 for both types of the devices. The AlGaN/GaN MOS-HFETs exhibited extremely low gate leakage current and much lower noise at both positive and negative gate biases. These features demonstrate the high quality of the SiO2/AlGaN heterointerface and feasibility of this technology for high-power microwave transmitter and high-power, high-temperature switches.

An AlxGa1−xN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas structure with x = 0.13 deposited by molecular beam epitaxy on a GaN layer grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy on a sapphire substrate was characterized. Hall effect measurements gave a sheet electron concentration of 5.1×1012 cm−2 and a mobility of 1.9 × 104 cm2/Vs at 10 K. Mobility spectrum analysis showed single-carrier transport and negligible parallel conduction at low temperatures. The sheet carrier concentrations determined from Shubnikov-de Haas magnetoresistance oscillations were in good agreement with the Hall data. The electron effective mass was determined to be 0.215±0.006 m0 based on the temperature dependence of the amplitude of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. The quantum lifetime was about one-fifth of the transport lifetime of 2.3 × 10−12 s.

High quality Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN modulation-doped heterojunction field-effect transistor (MOD-HFET) structures grown on sapphire substrates with high sheet carrier density and mobility products (nsμ > 1016/Vs at room temperature) have been grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The optimized structures were achieved by varying structural parameters, including the AlGaN spacer layer thickness, the Si-doped AlGaN barrier layer thickness, the Si-doping concentration, and the growth pressure. In these structures, the persistent photoconductivity (PPC) effect associated with the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) system was invariantly observed. As a consequence, the characteristic parameters of the 2DEG were sensitive to light and the sensitivity was associated with permanent photoinduced increases in the 2DEG carrier mobility (μ) and sheet carrier density (ns). However, we observed that the magnitude of the PPC and hence the photoinduced instability associated with these heterostructures were a strong function of only one parameter, the product of ns and μ, which is the most important parameter for the HFET device design. For a fixed excitation photon dose, the ratio of the low temperature PPC to the dark conductivity level was observed to decrease from 200% to 3% as the nsμ (300 K) product was increased from 0.048 × 1016/Vs to 1.4 × 1016/Vs. Based on our studies, we suggest that the magnitude of the low temperature PPC can be used as a sensitive probe for monitoring the electronic quality of the AlGaN/GaN HFET structures.

The output characteristics, cutoff frequency, breakdown voltage and the transconductance of wurtzite and zincblende phase GaN MESFETs have been calculated using a self-consistent, full band Monte Carlo simulation. It is found that the calculated breakdown voltage for the wurtzite device is considerably higher than that calculated for a comparable GaN zincblende phase device. The zincblende device is calculated to have a higher transconductance and cutoff frequency than the wurtzite device. The higher breakdown voltage of the wurtzite phase device is attributed to the higher density of electronic states for this phase compared to the zincblende phase. The higher cutoff frequency and transconductance of the zincblende phase GaN device is attributed to more appreciable electron velocity overshoot for this phase compared to that for the wurtzite phase. The maximum cutoff frequency and transconductance of a 0.1 μm gate-length zincblende GaN MESFET are calculated to be 220GHz and 210 mS/mm, respectively. The corresponding quantities for the wurtzite GaN device are calculated to be 160GHz and 158 mS/mm.

A new model is used to examine the DC output characteristics of AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field effect transistors. The model is based on the charge-control/gradual-channel approximation and takes into account the non-linear current vs. voltage characteristics of the ungated AlGaN/GaN heterostructure channel regions. The model also includes thermal effects associated with device self-heating. For the power dissipation levels considered for many applications, the thermal degradation of the carrier drift velocity is shown to cause a negative output conductance in saturation. The temperature is incorporated self-consistently into the model through the field and temperature dependent mobility obtained from Monte Carlo transport simulations for electron transport in GaN. Calculated results presented for the DC output characteristics of several AlGaN/GaN field effect transistors show a strong dependence on the thermal properties of the substrate material. The substrate materials considered in this work are sapphire, SiC, AlN, and GaN.

The temperature distribution in InGaN-MQW light emitting diodes was examined during operation with spatially resolved micro-Raman and micro-Electroluminescence measurements. The experimental results were compared to finite element simulations. A good agreement between the different experimental and calculated data is found. Maximum operation temperatures up to 140 °C at a moderate forward currents of 30 mA are revealed by all three independent methods. Influences of substrate thickness, different substrates, and even bond-wires are shown.

Electron beam pumped surface emitting lasers are of great interest for a variety of applications, such as Laser Cathode Ray Tubes (LCRT) in projection display technology or high power UV light sources for photolithography.

Two distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) samples were grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PAMBE). The active regions of the samples are a GaN:Si bulk layer and a multihetero (MH) structure, respectively.

Also, a separately grown single DBR stack was studied to find optical transmission and reflection properties which were compared to transfer matrix simulations.

We report on an experimental study of microstructure-based lasing in an optically pumped GaN/AlGaN separate confinement heterostructure (SCH). We achieved low-threshold ultra-violet lasing in optically pumped GaN/AlGaN separate confinement heterostructures over a wide temperature range. The spacing, directionality, and far-field patterns of the lasing modes are shown to be the result of microcavities that were naturally formed in the structures due to strain relaxation. The temperature sensitivity of the lasing wavelength was found to be twice as low as that of bulk-like GaN films. Based on these results, we discuss possibilities for the development of ultra-violet laser diodes with increased temperature stability of the emission wavelength.

Changes of properties of green LEDs based on InxGa1−xN/AlyGa1−y/GaN heterostructures were studied during 150÷200 hours at currents J = 30÷ 80 MA The radiation intensity at low currents (0.1÷1 mA) is quite sensitive to such an aging, it falls down 10÷100 times. Quantum efficiency and spectral parameters at normal currents (J ≈ 10 mA) change non-monotonically during aging, some degradation is observed after 168 hours. The degradation is observed also after a short (< 1 min) period of reverse current. These phenomena are discussed in terms of under threshold defect’s formation and their migration in the space charge region of p-n-heterojunction. Potential fluctuations in the space charge region are quite sensitive to this process.

InGaN thin films were grown by low-pressure metalorganic-vapor-phase-epitaxy (MOVPE) and characterized by cathodoluminescence (CL) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). SEM images showed that InGaN samples have inverted hexagonal pits which are formed by the In segregation on the (1011) surfaces. Room temperature CL at the wavelengths corresponding to the GaN band edge, the In-poor and In-rich regions showed that the In–rich regions formed at the periphery of the hexagonal pits.

Photoluminescence (PL) enhancement due to the screening of piezoelectric field induced by Si-doping is systematically studied in GaN/AlGaN quantum wells (QWs) fabricated by metal organic vapor-phase-epitaxy (MOVPE). The PL enhancement ratio of QWs for Si-doped directly into the wells was much larger than that for doped only into the barrier layers. This result shows that the crystal quality of the quantum well is not so damaged by heavy Si-doping, which is different from the cases of GaAs or InP material systems. The PL intensity enhancement ratio was especially large for thick wells. The typical value of the enhancement ratio was 30 times for a 5 nm-thick single QW. The optimum Si-doping concentration was approximately 4×1018 cm−3. From the well width dependence of the PL enhancement ratio and PL peak shift under high excitation conditions, we determined that the dominant effect inducing the PL enhancement is screening of piezoelectric field in the QWs. These results indicate that Si-doping is very effective for the application of GaN/AlGaN QWs to optical devices.

We comprehensively studied InGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using a variety of methods of optical spectroscopy, such as cathodoluminescence microscopy (CL), time-integrated and time-resolved photoluminescence. To correlate the fluctuations in emission wavelength with values for the optical amplification we performed gain measurements in edge-stripe geometry. The lateral homogeneity can be drastically improved using a template of GaN grown on the sapphire substrate by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). Gain values up to 62 cm−1 were found in samples with low indium fluctuations, which is comparable to values for high-quality InGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by MOVPE.

We demonstrate 230-250 nm efficient ultraviolet (UV) photoluminescence (PL) from AlN(AlGaN)/AlGaN multi-quantum-wells (MQWs) fabricated by metal-organic vapor-phase-epitaxy (MOVPE). Firstly, we show the PL properties of high Al content AlGaN bulk (Al content: 85-95%) emitting from near band-edge. We systematically investigated the PL properties of AlGaN-MQWs consisting of wide bandgap AlGaN (Al content: 53-100%) barrier. We obtained efficient PL emission of 234 and 245 nm from AlN/Al0.18Ga0.82N and Al0.8Ga0.2N/Al0.18Ga0.82N MQWs, respectively, at 77 K. The optimum value of well thickness was approximately 1.5 nm. The emission from the AlGaN MQWs were several tens of times stronger than that of bulk AlGaN. We found that the most efficient PL is obtained at around 240 nm from AlGaN MQWs with Al0.8Ga0.2N barriers. Also, we found that the PL from AlGaN MQW is as efficient as that of InGaN QWs at 77 K.

Rutherford backscattering and channeling spectrometry (RBS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used to investigate macroscopic and microscopic segregation in MOCVD grown InGaN layers. The PL peak energy and In content (measured by RBS) were mapped at a large number of distinct points on the samples. An indium concentration of 40%, the highest measured in this work, corresponds to a PL peak of 710 nm, strongly suggesting that the light-emitting regions of the sample are very indium-rich compared to the average measured by RBS. Cross-sectional TEM observations show distinctive layering of the InGaN films. The TEM study further reveals that these layers consist of amorphous pyramidal contrast features with sizes of order 10 nm. The composition of these specific contrast features is shown to be In-rich compared to the nitride matrix.

Phonon and free-carrier effects in a strained hexagonal (α) {GaN}l-{AlN}msuperlattice (SL) heterostructure (l = 8 nm, m = 3 nm) are studied by infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry (IRSE) and micro (µ)-Raman scattering. Growth of the heterostructures was performed by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) on (0001) sapphire. An unstrained 1 µm-thick α-GaN layer was deposited prior to the SL. SL phonon modes are identified combining results from both IRSE and µ-Raman techniques. The shift of the GaN-sublayer phonon modes is used to estimate an average compressive SL stress of σxx ∼ - 4.3 GPa. The IRSE data reveal a free-carrier concentration of ne ∼ 5×1018 cm−3 within the undoped SL GaN-sublayers. According to the vertical carrier confinement, the free-carrier mobility is anisotropic, and the lateral mobility (µ⊥ ∼ 400 cm2/Vs, polarization E⊥c-axis) exceeds the vertical mobility (µ|| ∼ 24 cm2/Vs, E||c) by one order of magnitude.

Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy was carried out on a series of Si-doped bulk InGaN films in the low indium (In) composition regime. Room temperature PL showed a factor of 25 increase in integrated intensity as the In composition was increased from 0 to 0.07. Temperature dependent PL data was fit to an Arrhenius equation to reveal an increasing activation energy for thermal quenching of the PL intensity as the In composition is increased. Time resolved PL measurements revealed that only the sample with highest In (x=0.07) showed a strong spectral variation in decay time across the T=4K PL resonance, indicative of recombination from localized states at low temperatures. The decay times at room temperature were non-radiatively dominated for all films, and the room temperature (non-radiative) decay times increased with increasing In, from 50-230 psec for x=0-0.07. Our data demonstrate that non-radiative recombination is less effective with increasing In composition.

Single crystalline (0001) gallium nitride layers, capped with a thin epitaxial aluminum nitride layer, were implanted with magnesium and subsequently annealed in vacuum to 1150-1300 °C for 10-60 minutes. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed the typical donor acceptor pair (DAP) transition at 3.25 eV after annealing at high temperatures, which is related to optically active Mg acceptors in GaN. After annealing at 1300 °C a high degree of optical activation of the implanted Mg atoms was reached in the case of low implantation doses. Electrical measurements, performed after removing the AlN-cap and the deposition of Pd/Au contacts, showed no p-type behavior of the GaN samples due to the compensation of the Mg acceptors with native n-type defects.