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GaN-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) have drawn interest in recent years for their potential applications in data storage, laser printing, solid-state lighting, optical communications, sensing, and displays. Several research groups have demonstrated electrically injected GaN-based VCSELs utilizing different growth and fabrication techniques to address the many challenges associated with III-nitride materials. One such challenge is fabrication of highquality conductive epitaxial distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). A relatively new approach that yields high-index-contrast lattice-matched epitaxial DBRs is to introduce subwavelength air-voids (nanopores) in alternating layers of doped/undoped GaN. These nanoporous layers can be achieved by the controlled anodic electrochemical etching of highly doped n-type GaN in acids. The selective formation of the nanopores in the doped layers effectively lowers the refractive index compared to the adjacent undoped GaN layers, resulting in a refractive index difference of ~0.83, allowing high reflectance (>99%) with only ~16 pairs. Here, we will present electrically injected nonpolar m-plane GaN-based VCSELs with lattice-matched nanoporous GaN bottom DBRs and top dielectric DBRs. Lasing under pulsed operation at room temperature was observed at 409 nm with a linewidth of ~0.6 nm and a maximum output power of ~1.5 mW. The nonpolar m-plane orientation offers low transparency, high material gain, and anisotropic gain characteristics. The VCSELs were linearly polarized with a polarization ratio of ~0.94 and polarization-pinned emission along the a-direction. The mode profiles, thermal properties, and lasing yield of the VCSELs are also discussed.

The increasing demand for wireless data communication and popularity of solid-state lighting has prompted research into visible-light communication (VLC) systems using GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs). VLC is a promising candidate for next-generation (5G and beyond) network systems. To support multi-Gb/s data rates, VLC systems will require efficient LEDs with large modulation bandwidths. Conventional lighting-class LEDs cannot achieve high-speed operation due to their large chip size, large active region volume, and phosphor-converted output. Conversely, micro-scale LEDs (micro-LEDs) offer a viable path to high-speed operation. Furthermore, conventional c-plane LEDs suffer from polarization-related electric fields, which reduce the overlap between the electron and hole wave functions and lower the carrier recombination rate. Since modulation bandwidth is proportional to the carrier recombination rate, the overlap between the wave functions should be maximized for high-speed operation. Nonpolar and semipolar orientations have significantly reduced polarization effects and wave function overlaps approaching unity. These orientations can enable high-efficiency LEDs with simultaneously large modulation bandwidths. In this work, we introduce VLC and discuss progress on the growth, fabrication, and characterization of high-speed micro-LEDs. Polar (0001), nonpolar (10-10), and semipolar (20-2-1) InGaN/GaN micro-LEDs on free-standing GaN substrates are investigated for their small-signal modulation characteristics as a function of current density, temperature, device area, and active region design. Record modulation bandwidths above 1 GHz are achieved for the nonpolar and semipolar orientations. We also present a small-signal method for determining the RC characteristics, differential carrier lifetime, carrier escape lifetime, and injection efficiency of the LEDs under electrical injection.

GaN is an attractive material for high-power electronics due to its wide bandgap and large breakdown field. Verticalgeometry devices are of interest due to their high blocking voltage and small form factor. One challenge for realizing complex vertical devices is the regrowth of low-leakage-current p-n junctions within selectively defined regions of the wafer. Presently, regrown p-n junctions exhibit higher leakage current than continuously grown p-n junctions, possibly due to impurity incorporation at the regrowth interfaces, which consist of c-plane and non-basal planes. Here, we study the interfacial impurity incorporation induced by various growth interruptions and regrowth conditions on m-plane p-n junctions on free-standing GaN substrates. The following interruption types were investigated: (1) sample in the main MOCVD chamber for 10 min, (2) sample in the MOCVD load lock for 10 min, (3) sample outside the MOCVD for 10 min, and (4) sample outside the MOCVD for one week. Regrowth after the interruptions was performed on two different samples under n-GaN and p-GaN growth conditions, respectively. Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) analysis indicated interfacial silicon spikes with concentrations ranging from 5e16 cm-3 to 2e18 cm-3 for the n-GaN growth conditions and 2e16 cm-3 to 5e18 cm-3 for the p-GaN growth conditions. Oxygen spikes with concentrations ~1e17 cm-3 were observed at the regrowth interfaces. Carbon impurity levels did not spike at the regrowth interfaces under either set of growth conditions. We have correlated the effects of these interfacial impurities with the reverse leakage current and breakdown voltage of regrown m-plane p-n junctions.

Heteroepitaxial semipolar and nonpolar GaN layers often suffer from high densities of extended defects including basal plane stacking faults (BSFs). BSFs which are considered as inclusions of cubic zinc-blende phase in wurtzite matrix act as quantum wells strongly affecting device performance. Band alignment in BSFs has been discussed as type of band alignment at the wurtzite/zinc blende interface governs the response in differential transmission; fast decay after the pulse followed by slow recovery due to spatial splitting of electrons and heavy holes for type- II band alignment in contrast to decay with no recovery in case of type I band alignment. Based on the results, band alignment is demonstrated to be of type II in zinc-blende segments in wurtzite matrix as in BSFs.

The effect of compressive strain in buffer layer on strain relaxation and indium incorporation in InGaN multi-quantum wells (MQWs) is studied for two sets of samples grown side by side on both relaxed GaN layers and strained 10-pairs of AlN/GaN periodic multilayers. The 14-nm AlN layers were utilized in both multilayers, while GaN thickness was 4.5 and 2.5 nm in the first and the second set, respectively. The obtained results for the InGaN active layers on relaxed GaN and AlN/GaN periodic multilayers indicate enhanced indium incorporation for more relaxed InGaN active layers providing a variety of emission colors from purple to green.

Near-field scanning optical microscopy was applied to investigate the spatial variations of extended defects and their effects on the optical quality for semi-polar (1-101) and (11-22) InGaN light emitting diodes (LEDs). (1-101) and (11-22) oriented InGaN LEDs emitting at 450-470 nm were grown on patterned Si (001) 7° offcut substrates and m-sapphire substrates by means of nano-epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO), respectively. For (1-101) structures, the photoluminescence (PL) at 85 K from the near surface c+ wings was found to be relatively uniform and strong across the sample. However, emission from the c- wings was substantially weaker due to the presence of high density of threading dislocations (TDs) and basal plane stacking faults (BSFs) as revealed from the local PL spectra. In case of (11-22) LED structures, near-field PL intensity correlated with the surface features and the striations along the direction parallel to the c-axis projection exposed facets where the Indium content was higher as deduced from shift in the PL peak energy.

Reduced electric field in semipolar (1122) GaN/InGaN heterostructures makes this orientation attractive for high efficiency light emitting diodes. In this work, we investigated indium incorporation in semipolar (1122) GaN grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on planar m-plane sapphire substrates. Indium content in the semipolar material was compared with that in polar c-plane samples grown under the same conditions simultaneously side by side on the same holder. The investigated samples incorporated dual GaN/InGaN/GaN double heterostructures with 3nm wide wells. In order to improve optical quality, both polar and semipolar templates were grown using an in-situ epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) technique. Indium incorporation efficiency was derived from the comparison of PL spectra measured on the semipolar and polar structures at the highest excitation density, which allowed us to minimize the effect of quantum confined Stark effect on the emission wavelength. Our data suggests increased indium content in the semipolar material by up to 3.0%, from 15% In in c- GaN to 18% In in (1122) GaN.

Enhancement of optical and structural quality of semipolar (11‾22) GaN grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition on planar m-sapphire substrates was achieved by using an in-situ epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) technique with nanoporous SiNx layers employed as masks. In order to optimize the procedure, the effect of SiNx deposition time was studied by steady-state photoluminescence (PL), and X-ray diffraction. The intensity of room temperature PL for the (11‾22) GaN layers grown under optimized conditions was about three times higher compared to those for the reference samples having the same thickness but no SiNx interlayers. This finding is attributed to the blockage of extended defect propagation toward the surface by the SiNx interlayers as evidenced from the suppression of emissions associated with basal-plane and prismatic stacking faults with regard to the intensity of donor bound excitons (D 0 X) in lowtemperature PL spectra. In agreement with the optical data, full width at half maximum values of (11‾22) X-ray rocking curves measured for two different in-plane rotational orientations of [1‾100] and [11‾23] reduced from 0.33o and 0.26o for the reference samples to 0.2o and 0.16o for the nano-ELO structures grown under optimized conditions, respectively.

The effects of stacking faults (SFs) on optical processes in epitaxially grown semipolar (1122) GaN on m-sapphire substrate have been investigated in detail using steady-state photoluminescence (PL) and time- and polarization-resolved PL. We demonstrate that the carrier recombination dynamics are substantially influenced due to strong carrier localization in the stacking faults. In addition to nonradiative recombination, carrier trapping/detrapping and carrier transfer between the stacking faults and donors are also found to be among the mechanisms affecting the recombination dynamics at different temperatures. PL decay times of both I 1 -type BSF and 3.31 eV SF (E-type BSF or prismatic stacking fault) do not show temperature dependence up to 80 K while 3.31 eV SF exhibits longer PL decay times (~3 ns) at low temperatures as compared to I 1 -type BSF (~1 ns), indicative of lower efficiency for radiative recombination. After 80 K, PL decay times decreased by power of ~-1 and ~-2 for 3.31 eV SF and I 1 -type BSF, respectively. It is obtained from radiative decay times with respect to temperature that the carrier localization becomes higher in I 1 -type BSF compared to 3.31 eV SF increasing the temperature. I 1 -type BSF also shows higher PL intensity, which is attributed to larger density, and therefore, larger contribution to recombination dynamics as compared to other type of stacking faults. Polarization-resolved PL measurements also revealed that the degree of polarization for the I 1 -type BSF (0.30) was twice that for the 3.31 eV SF.

Enhancement of coherent zone folded longitudinal acoustic phonon (ZFLAP) oscillations at terahertz frequencies was demonstrated in InGaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) by using wavelength degenerate time resolved differential transmission spectroscopy. Screening of the piezoelectric field in InGaN MQWs by photogenerated carriers upon femtosecond pulse excitation gave rise to terahertz ZFLAPs, which were monitored at the Brillouin zone center in the transmission geometry. MQWs composed of 10 pairs In x Ga 1-x N wells and In 0.03 Ga 0.97 N barriers provided coherent phonon frequencies of 0.69-0.80 THz depending on the period of MQWs. Dependences of ZFLAP amplitude on excitation density and wavelength were also investigated. Possibility of achieving phonon cavity, incorporating a MQW placed between two AlN/GaN phonon mirrors designed to exhibit large acoustic gaps at the zone center, was also explored.

Nonpolar m -plane GaN layers were grown on patterned Si (112) substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). A two-stage growth procedure involving a low-pressure (30 Torr) first stage to ensure formation of the m -plane facets and a high-pressure stage (200 Torr) for improvement of optical quality was employed. The layers grown in two steps show improvement of the optical quality: the near-bandedge photoluminescence (PL) intensity is about 3 times higher than that for the layers grown at low pressure, and deep emission is considerably weaker. However, emission intensity from m- GaN is still lower than that of polar and semipolar ( 1100 ) reference samples grown under the same conditions. To shed light on this problem, spatial distribution of optical emi ssion over the c+ and ci wings of the nonpolar GaN/Si was studied by spatially resolved cathodoluminescence and near-field scanning optical microscopy. Keywords: GaN, nonpolar, m-plane, Si substrate, MOCVD, time-resolved photoluminescence, near-field scanning optical microscopy

Carrier transport in double heterostructure (DH) InGaN light emitting diodes (LEDs) was investigated using photocurrent measurements performed under CW HeCd laser (325 nm wavelength) excitation. The effect of electron injector thicknesses was investigated by monitoring the excitation density and applied bias dependent escape of photogenerated carriers from the active region and through energy band structure and carrier transport simulations using Silvaco Atlas. For quad (4x) 3-nm DH LED structures incorporating staircase electron injectors (SEIs), photocurrent increased with SEI thickness due to reduced effective barrier opposing carrier escape from the active region as confirmed by simulations. The carrier leakage percentile at -3V bias and 280 Wcm -2 optical excitation density increased from 24 % to 55 % when In 0.04 Ga 0.96 N + In 0.08 Ga 0.92 N SEI thickness was increased from 4 nm + 4 nm to 30 nm + 30 nm. The increased leakage with thicker SEI correlates with increased carrier overflow under forward bias.