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Strain engineering as one of the most powerful techniques for tuning optical and electronic properties of Ill-nitrides requires reliable methods for strain investigation. In this work, we reveal, that the linear model based on the experimental data limited to within a small range of biaxial strains (0.2%), which is widely used for the non-destructive Raman study of strain with nanometer-scale spatial resolution is not valid for the binary wurtzite-structure group-III nitrides GaN and AlN. Importantly, we found that the discrepancy between the experimental values of strain and those calculated via Raman spectroscopy increases as the strain in both GaN and AlN increases. Herein, a new model has been developed to describe the strain-induced Raman frequency shift in GaN and AlN for a wide range of biaxial strains (up to 2.5%). Finally, we proposed a new approach to correlate the Raman frequency shift and strain, which is based on the lattice coherency in the epitaxial layers of superlattice structures and can be used for a wide range of materials.Supplementary material (Table S1: Values of bulk phonon deformation potentials and elastic constants for GaN and AlN from each reference used in Table 1, Fig. S1: Lattice parameters of SL layers using Eq. (8), and Fig. S2: Raman mapping using Eq. (7)) is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s12274-021-3855-4.

International audience; Hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) can be used as a p-doped material in wide-bandgap optoelectronic heterostructures or as a release layer to allow lift-off of grown three-dimensional (3D) GaN-based devices. To date, there have been no studies of factors that lead to or prevent lift-off and/or spontaneous delamination of layers. Here, we report a unique approach of controlling the adhesion of this layered material, which can result in both desired lift-off layered h-BN and mechanically inseparable robust h-BN layers. This is accomplished by controlling the diffusion of Al atoms into h-BN from AlN buffers grown on h-BN/sapphire. We present evidence of Al diffusion into h-BN for AlN buffers grown at high temperatures compared to conventional-temperature AlN buffers. Further evidence that the Al content in BN controls lift-off is provided by comparison of two alloys, Al 0.03 B 0.97 N/sapphire and Al 0.17 B 0.83 N/sapphire. Moreover, we tested that management of Al diffusion controls the mechanical adhesion of high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) devices grown on AlN/h-BN/sapphire. The results extend the control of two-dimensional (2D)/3D hetero-epitaxy and bring h-BN closer to industrial application in optoelectronics.

Owing to their wide direct bandgap tunability, III-nitride (III-N) compound semiconductors have been proven instrumental in the development of blue light-emitting diodes that led to the so-called solid-state lighting revolution and blue laser diodes that are used for optical data storage. Beyond such conventional optoelectronic devices, in this review, we explore the progress made in the past 15 years with this low refractive index material family for the realization of microdisks as well as 2D and 1D photonic crystal (PhC) membrane cavities. Critical aspects related to their design and fabrication are first highlighted. Then, the optical properties of passive PhC structures designed for near-infrared such as their quality factor and their mode volume are addressed. Additional challenges dealing with fabrication pertaining to structures designed for shorter wavelengths, namely the visible to ultraviolet spectral range, are also critically reviewed and analyzed. Various applications ranging from second and third harmonic generation to microlasers and nanolasers are then discussed. Finally, forthcoming challenges and novel fields of application of III-N photonic cavities are commented.

Monolayer (ML)-scale GaN/AlN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures for electron-beam-pumped ultraviolet (UV) emitters are grown on c-sapphire substrates by using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy under controllable metal-rich conditions, which provides the spiral growth of densely packed atomically smooth hillocks without metal droplets. These structures have ML-stepped terrace-like surface topology in the entire QW thickness range from 0.75–7 ML and absence of stress at the well thickness below 2 ML. Satisfactory quantum confinement and mitigating the quantum-confined Stark effect in the stress-free MQW structures enable one to achieve the relatively bright UV cathodoluminescence with a narrow-line (~15 nm) in the sub-250-nm spectral range. The structures with many QWs (up to 400) exhibit the output optical power of ~1 W at 240 nm, when pumped by a standard thermionic-cathode (LaB6) electron gun at an electron energy of 20 keV and a current of 65 mA. This power is increased up to 11.8 W at an average excitation energy of 5 µJ per pulse, generated by the electron gun with a ferroelectric plasma cathode at an electron-beam energy of 12.5 keV and a current of 450 mA.

In this research work, InGaN triple compound was grown under low nitrogen gas flows by using the sputtering technique. The structural, optical and morphological characteristics of the InGaN compound have been studied in detail. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman for structural analysis; absorption measurement technique for optical properties; scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurement techniques were used for the study of the morphological characteristics. In the XRD analysis, the film deposited at 0 sccm gas flow exhibits a (0002) peak of InN, (0002) and (10–11) peaks of GaN. Other films show dendritic structure. In the Raman analysis, the optical phonon modes of the InGaN compound are A 1 (LO) and E 2 (high). Optical band gaps are found to be 2.57 eV, 2.54 eV, 3.03 eV and 2.93 eV for 0–0.4–0.8–1.2 sccm, respectively. These changes are ascribed to the degraded crystallinity of the grown films at high nitrogen flow rates. The surface morphology of the InGaN films grown at 0 sccm displays clusters of near-spherical-shaped nanoparticles over the surface. In the results of the AFM, the surface topography of the InGaN thin films deposited with lower nitrogen content exhibited fewer grains on the surface, especially on 0.4 sccm gas flow rate. The number of grains increased with higher N 2 gas flow rates. The surface roughness of the films decreased with increasing N 2 gas flows. It is clear that surface morphology of the films depends on the gas flow rate very much. Due to their morphological properties, we can say that they are suitable structures for optoelectronic applications and friction applications in engineering. We can also say that films with a hexagonal crystal structure and different optical band gaps can be used in device applications such as LED, laser diode and power electronics. © 2019, The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.

This article belongs to the Special Issue New Trends in Solar Energy Materials: Characterization, Properties and Applications. Compact Al0.37In0.63N layers were grown by radiofrequency sputtering on bare and 15 nm-thick AlN-buffered Si (111) substrates. The crystalline quality of the AlInN layers was studied by high-resolution X-ray diffraction measurements and transmission electron microscopy. Both techniques show an improvement of the structural properties when the AlInN layer is grown on a 15 nm-thick AlN buffer. The layer grown on bare silicon exhibits a thin amorphous interfacial layer between the substrate and the AlInN, which is not present in the layer grown on the AlN buffer layer. A reduction of the density of defects is also observed in the layer grown on the AlN buffer. Partial financial support was provided by the Spanish national project NERA (RTI2018-101037-B-I00), the Comunidad de Madrid projects SINFOTON-2 (S2018/NMT-4326) and SOLA (CM/JIN/2019-013), the University of Alcala project PISA (CCG19/IA-005), and the Junta de Andalucía (PAI research group TEP-946 INNANOMAT). The co-financing from UE-FEDER is also acknowledged. M.d.l.M. acknowledges the postdoctoral fellowship of Juan de la Cierva from MICINN (IJCI-2017-31507). The TEM measurements were taken at DME-SC-ICyT-UCA (ICTS ELECMI)

Since the first demonstration of (Al, In, Ga)N-based blue vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) in 2008, the maximum output power (Pmax) and threshold current density (Jth) has been improved significantly after a decade of technology advancements. This article reviewed the key challenges for the realization of VCSELs with III-nitride materials, such as inherent polarization effects, difficulties in distributed Bragg’s reflectors (DBR) fabrication for a resonant cavity, and the anti-guiding effect due to the deposited dielectrics current aperture. The significant tensile strain between AlN and GaN hampered the intuitive cavity design with two epitaxial DBRs from arsenide-based VCSELs. Therefore, many alternative cavity structures and processing technologies were developed; for example, lattice-matched AlInN/GaN DBR, nano-porous DBR, or double dielectric DBRs via various overgrowth or film transfer processing strategies. The anti-guiding effect was overcome by integrating a fully planar or slightly convex DBR as one of the reflectors. Special designs to limit the emission polarization in a circular aperture were also summarized. Growing VCSELs on low-symmetry non-polar and semipolar planes discriminates the optical gain along different crystal orientations. A deliberately designed high-contrast grating could differentiate the reflectivity between the transverse-electric field and transverse-magnetic field, which restricts the lasing mode to be the one with the higher reflectivity. In the future, the III-nitride based VCSEL shall keep advancing in total power, applicable spectral region, and ultra-low threshold pumping density with the novel device structure design and processing technologies.

III-nitride resonant cavity-enhanced Schottky barrier photodetectors were fabricated on 2 &micro, m thick GaN templates by radio frequency plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy. The optical cavity was formed by a bottom distributed Bragg reflector based on 10 periods of Al0.3Ga0.7N/GaN, an Au-based Schottky contact as top mirror, and an active zone of 40 nm-thick GaN layer. The devices were fabricated with planar geometry. To evaluate the main benefits allowed by the optical cavity, conventional Schottky photodetectors were also processed. The results revealed a planar spectral response for the conventional photodetector, unlike the resonant devices that showed two raised peaks at 330 and 358 nm with responsivities of 0.34 and 0.39 mA/W, respectively. Both values were 80 times higher than the planar response of the conventional device. These results demonstrate the strong effect of the optical cavity to achieve the desired wavelength selectivity and to enhance the optical field thanks to the light resonance into the optical cavity. The research of such a combination of nitride-based Bragg mirror and thin active layer is the kernel of the present paper.

III-nitride semiconductors have wide bandgap and high carrier mobility, making them suitable candidates for light-emitting diodes (LEDs), laser diodes (LDs), high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) and other optoelectronics. Compared with conventional epitaxy technique, van der Waals epitaxy (vdWE) has been proven to be a useful route to relax the requirements of lattice mismatch and thermal mismatch between the nitride epilayers and the substrates. By using vdWE, the stress in the epilayer can be sufficiently relaxed, and the epilayer can be easily exfoliated and transferred, which provides opportunities for novel device design and fabrication. In this paper, we review and discuss the important progress on the researches of nitrides vdWE. The potential applications of nitride vdWE are also prospected.

GaN-based UV light-emitting devices suffer from low efficiency. To mitigate this issue, we hybridized GaN nanowires (NWs) grown on Si substrates by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy with solution-processed p-type MnO quantum dots (QDs) characterized by a wider band gap (∼5 eV) than that of GaN. Further investigations reveal that the photoluminescence intensity of the GaN NWs increases up to ∼3.9-fold (∼290%) after functionalizing them with p-MnO QDs, while the internal quantum efficiency is improved by ∼1.7-fold. Electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) incorporated into transmission electron microscopy reveals an increase in the density of states in QD-decorated NWs compared to the bare ones. The advanced optical and EELS analyses indicate that the energy transfer from the wider band gap p-MnO QDs to n-GaN NW can lead to substantial emission enhancement and greater radiative recombination contribution because of the good band alignment between MnO QDs and GaN NWs. This work provides valuable insights into an environmentally friendly strategy for improving UV device performance.

Lisää OA-julkaisu, kun saatavilla. It has recently been proposed that back-contacted III-V light-emitting diodes (LEDs) could offer improved current spreading as compared to conventional mesa or double side contacted structures. This has inspired also experimental efforts to realize such structures, but fabrication methods for them have not yet been fully established. Herein, the use of unintentionally doped and partially carrier-selective contacts (SC) is studied to realize back-contacted indium gallium nitride (InGaN) LEDs. The sharp electroluminescence peak at 439 nm from the multiquantum well stack demonstrates that the approach allows fabricating back-contacted InGaN LEDs without intentionally doped n-GaN layers and without inflicting damage in the active region, often observed in alternative approaches relying on lateral doping and the use of high energy particles during fabrication. The samples are fabricated on a finger configuration with several finger widths between 1 and 20 mu m. It is observed that the emission spreads most uniformly throughout the structure for fingers with the width of 5 mu m. As shown by the simulations, with improved contact resistances, the structures reported herein could enable fabricating back-contacted LEDs with unity injection efficiency and improved current spreading, offering a path toward large-area LEDs without contact shading even in materials where n-doping is elusive.

In-plane-gate field-effect transistors (IPGFETs) offer an innovative device architecture in which the channel conductivity is modulated by the electric field from the 2D electron gas in the two adjacent in-plane gates, isolated by etched trenches. The planar nature of the gate electrode yields a huge reduction in parasitic gate capacitance, which can lead to much higher frequency. Moreover, the fabrication process for these devices is extremely simple and with inherently self-aligned gates. Here, we combine for the first time the promising architecture of IPGFETs with the exceptional properties of III-Nitrides, such as large carrier density and breakdown field, to reveal their enormous potential for high-power RF devices. AlGaN/GaN IPGFETs demonstrated large drain current up to 1.4 A/mm and transconductance up to 665 mS/mm, which are, respectively, nine times- and five times-larger than the best IPGFETs demonstrated in other semiconductors. These devices presented excellent gate control with ON–OFF ratio up to $10^{7}$ along with ultra-low capacitances down to 0.7 aF, leading to an estimated $f_{T}$ up to 0.89 THz. Extremely large breakdown voltage of 500 V was observed despite their nanoscale dimensions, with small leakage current below 1 nA up to 300 V. These results reveal that III-Nitride IPGFETs offer a promising pathway for future terahertz devices delivering large output powers.

International audience; In article number 1900164 by Abdallah Ougazzaden and co‐workers, III‐Nitride based LEDs have been locally grown on h‐BN and fabricated at a wafer‐scale. This enables a simple and a dicing‐free pick‐and‐place of the devices on a flexible substrate without performance degradation.

In this research, we have investigated P-I-N structures based on InGaN/GaN materials suitable for different size and adapted to the requirements of device characterization. The fabrication has been performed using different designs. Besides, the optimization of the fabrication process has been performed for multi scaled device fabrication (ranging from ${5}\times 5\ \mu \mathrm{m}^{2}$ to $100\times 100\ \mu \mathrm{m}^{{2}})$ in terms of photolithography, etching, metal deposition and passivation. We have considered $\mu$ , -photodiodes with planar and vertical configurations. Design and fabrication of specific coplanar RF electrical transmission lines have been performed in order to reduce the influence of parasitic capacitances. We have therefore evaluated the size effect on capacitance which affects the speed of the devices, and consequently the cut-off frequency. The reported cut-off frequency @ −3dB has been evaluated as 1.5 GHz for a diameter of $25\mu \mathrm{m}$ . This result indicates a potential response for LiFi needs as a part of optical wireless secured communication technology.

Resonance Raman analysis is performed in order to gain insight into the nature of impurity-induced Raman features in GaN:(Mn,Mg) hosting Mn-Mgk cation complexes and representing a prospective strategic material for the realization of full-nitride photonic devices emitting in the infra-red. It is found that in contrast to the case of GaN:Mn, the resonance enhancement of Mn-induced modes at sub-band excitation in Mg co-doped samples is not observed at an excitation of 2.4 eV, but shifts to lower energies, an effect explained by a resonance process involving photoionization of a hole from the donor level of Mn to the valence band of GaN. Selective excitation within the resonance Raman conditions allows the structure of the main Mn-induced phonon band at ~670 cm&minus, 1 to be resolved into two distinct components, whose relative intensity varies with the Mg/Mn ratio and correlates with the concentration of different Mn-Mgk cation complexes. Moreover, from the relative intensity of the 2LO and 1LO Raman resonances at inter-band excitation energy, the Huang-Rhys parameter has been estimated and, consequently, the strength of the electron-phonon interaction, which is found to increase linearly with the Mg/Mn ratio. Selective temperature-dependent enhancement of the high-order multiphonon peaks is due to variation in resonance conditions of exciton-mediated outgoing resonance Raman scattering by detuning the band gap.

Phase-separated semiconductor systems hosting magnetic nanocrystal (NCs) are attracting increasing attention, due to their potential as spintronic elements for the next generation of devices. Owing to their morphology- and stoichiometry-dependent magnetic response, self-assembled &gamma, &rsquo, Ga y Fe 4 &minus, y N NCs embedded in a Fe &delta, doped GaN matrix, are particularly versatile. It is studied and reported here, how the tuning of relevant growth parameters during the metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy process affects the crystalline arrangement, size, and shape of these self-assembled nanostructures. In particular, it is found that the Ga-flow provided during the &delta, doping, determines the amount of Fe incorporated into the layers and the spatial density of the NCs. Moreover, the in-plane dimensions of the NCs can also be controlled via the Ga-flow, conditioning the aspect-ratio of the embedded nanostructures. These findings are pivotal for the design of nanocrystal arrays with on-demand size and shape, essential requirements for the implementation into functional devices.

Similar to bulk semiconductors, alloying suggests a promising strategy to tailor the fundamental properties of two-dimensional (2D) systems with constituent composition. In that sense, detailed understanding of atomic structure and stability analysis are required to predict and design new 2D alloys. In this paper, we analyze the structural, mechanical, electronic, thermal, and optical properties of monolayer Ga1−xAlxN ordered alloys for varying concentration by using ab initio methods. Following the determination of ground state geometries by taking into account the possibility of segregation, we investigate the stability of the considered structures by phonon spectrum analysis and high temperature molecular dynamics calculations. Our results indicate that the properties of 2D Ga1−xAlxN can be modified continuously by controlling the Al concentration. Tunability of the desired properties broadens the possible usage of 2D semiconductors in nanoscale applications.

Epitaxial growth of III‐nitrides on 2D materials enables the realization of flexible optoelectronic devices for next‐generation wearable applications. Unfortunately, it is difficult to obtain high‐quality III‐nitride epilayers on 2D materials such as hexagonal BN (h‐BN) due to different atom hybridizations. Here, the epitaxy of single‐crystalline GaN films on the chemically activated h‐BN/Al2O3 substrates is reported, paying attention to interface atomic configuration. It is found that chemical‐activated h‐BN provides B—O—N and N—O bonds, where the latter ones act as effective artificial dangling bonds for following GaN nucleation, leading to Ga‐polar GaN films with a flat surface. The h‐BN is also found to be effective in modifying the compressive strain in GaN film and thus improves indium incorporation during the growth of InGaN quantum wells, resulting in the achievement of pure green light‐emitting diodes. This work provides an effective way for III‐nitrides epitaxy on h‐BN and a possible route to overcome the epitaxial bottleneck of high indium content III‐nitride light‐emitting devices., Epitaxy of single‐crystalline GaN films is performed on hexagonal BN (h‐BN)/sapphire substrates. This success is achieved through chemical activation on h‐BN, which generates N—O bonds, and thus provides nucleation sites for Ga‐polar GaN. Subsequently, pure green InGaN‐based light‐emitting diodes are fabricated with a considerable increase of indium incorporation, manifesting a great potential in long wavelength light‐emitting diodes.

III-Nitride short period superlattices (SPSLs), whose period does not exceed ~2 nm (~8 monolayers), have a few unique properties allowing engineering of light-emitting devices emitting in deep UV range of wavelengths with significant reduction of dislocation density in the active layer. Such SPSLs can be grown using both molecular beam epitaxy and metal organic chemical vapor deposition approaches. Of the two growth methods, the former is discussed in more detail in this review. The electrical and optical properties of such SPSLs, as well as the design and fabrication of deep UV light-emitting devices based on these materials, are described and discussed.

The effect of an AlN buffer layer thickness on the structural, morphological and optical properties of n- Al0.37In0.63N deposited on p-Si (111) by radio-frequency sputtering was studied. The AlN/ Al0.37In0.63N samples were structurally characterized via X-ray diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy showing that all layers present wurtzite structure highly oriented along the c-axis with no phase separation. All the samples present compact morphology with root-mean-square surface roughness below 1.7 nm and low-temperature photoluminescence emission centered at 1.8 eV. The presence of the buffer layer leads to an improvement of the structural quality, evidenced by a reduction of the full width at half maximum of the rocking curve around the (0002) AlInN reflection from 8° to 5°. Selected samples were processed and tested as solar cells showing a good rectifying behavior in the dark and an open circuit voltage of 0.35 V, a short circuit current density of 22.2 mA/cm2 and fill factor of 20% under 1 sun AM1.5G illumination., Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Comunidad de Madrid, Universidad de Alcalá

Devices based on nanostructures hold great potential to improve the performance of present light emitter technologies. In this paper, we examine a buried multiquantum well III-nitride diffusion injected light-emitting diode (DILED), where the active region is located outside the p-n junction and current injection to the active region takes place through bipolar diffusion. We study the current–voltage behavior and light emission characteristics of the DILED as a function of temperature experimentally and theoretically. We show that in contrast to conventional LEDs, the light output efficiency of the DILED increases when temperature is increased from 0 °C to 100 °C. This anomalous temperature behavior is shown to be linked to the strong temperature dependency of ionized acceptor density in the p-doped region, which increases the hole diffusion current into the active region. This highlights the fundamental difference in the operating principle of the DILED compared with conventional LEDs. In addition to optical and electrical characterization of a DILED, we also study the relation of the observed yellow-band luminescence to Shockley–Read–Hall recombination, compare the measurements to charge carrier transport simulations, and present an equivalent circuit model of the DILED structure for additional insight into the new current injection scheme.

Advances in Electronics and Optics are often preceded by discoveries in Crystal Growth theory and practice. This article represents in retrospect some of the most significant contributions of heteroepitaxy in these and some other areas—the strong impact of the three modes of heteroepitaxy on microelectronics and quantum optics, the big “push” of PENDEO epitaxy in development of Light Emitting Diodes, etc. A large part of the text is dedicated to heteroepitaxy of nonlinear optical materials grown on orientation-patterned templates and used in the development of new quasi-phase-matching frequency conversion laser sources. By achieving new frequency ranges such sources will result in a wide variety of applications in areas such as defense, security, industry, medicine, and science. Interesting facts from the scientific life of major contributors in the field are mixed in the text with fine details from growth experiments, chemical equations, results from material characterizations and some optical and crystallographic considerations—all these presented in a popular way but without neglecting their scientific importance and depth. The truth is that often heteroepitaxy is not just the better but the only available option. The truth is that delays in device development are usually due to gaps in materials research. In all this, miscommunication between different scientific communities always costs vain efforts, uncertainty, and years of going in a wrong scientific direction. With this article we aim to stimulate a constructive dialog that could lead to solutions of important interdisciplinary scientific and technical issues.

International audience; The mechanical release of III‐nitride devices using h‐BN is a promising approach for heterogeneous integration. Upscaling this technology for industrial level requires solutions that allow a simple pick‐and‐place technique of selected devices for integration while preserving device performance. An advance that satisfies both of these requirements is demonstrated in this work. It is based on a lateral control of the h‐BN quality, using patterned sapphire with a SiO2 mask, to achieve localized van der Waals epitaxy of high‐quality GaN based device structures. After process fabrication, the devices can be individually picked and placed on a foreign substrate without the need for a dicing step. In addition, this approach could reduce delamination of h‐BN on large diameter substrates because each h‐BN region is smaller, with independent device structures. Discrete InGaN LEDs on h‐BN are grown and fabricated on 2 in. patterned sapphire using a SiO2 mask. A set of devices are selectively released and transferred to flexible aluminum tape. The transferred LEDs exhibit blue light emission around 435 nm. The approach presented here is scalable on any wafer size, can be applied to other types of nitride‐based devices, and can be compatible with commercial pick‐and‐place handlers for mass production.

β-Ga2O3, characterized with high n-type conductivity, little lattice mismatch with III-Nitrides, high transparency (>80%) in blue, and UVA (400–320 nm) as well as UVB (320–280 nm) regions, has great potential as the substrate for vertical structure blue and especially ultra violet LEDs (light emitting diodes). Large efforts have been made to improve the quality of III-Nitrides epilayers on β-Ga2O3. Furthermore, the fabrication of vertical blue LEDs has been preliminarily realized with the best result that output power reaches to 4.82 W (under a current of 10 A) and internal quantum efficiency (IQE) exceeds 78% by different groups, respectively, while there is nearly no demonstration of UV-LEDs on β-Ga2O3. In this review, with the perspective from materials to devices, we first describe the basic properties, growth method, as well as doping of β-Ga2O3, then introduce in detail the progress in growth of GaN on (1 0 0) and (−2 0 1) β-Ga2O3, followed by the epitaxy of AlGaN on gallium oxide. Finally, the advances in fabrication and performance of vertical structure LED (VLED) are presented.

Growth of semiconductor nanowires on cheap metal substrates could pave the way to the large-scale manufacture of low-cost nanowire-based devices. In this work, we demonstrated that high density InN nanowires can be directly grown on brass substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. It was found that Zn from the brass substrates is the key factor in the formation of nanowires by restricting the lateral growth of InN. The nanowire morphology is highly dependent on the growth temperature. While at a lower growth temperature, the nanowires and the In droplets have large diameters. At the elevated growth temperature, the lateral sizes of the nanowires and the In droplets are much smaller. Moreover, the nanowire diameter can be controlled in situ by varying the temperature in the growth process. This method is very instructive to the diameter-controlled growth of nanowires of other materials.

International audience; The present paper is implementing a numerical application of the Boltzmann–Arrhenius–Zhurkov (BAZ) model and relates to the statistic reliability model derived from the Transition State Theory paradigm. It shows how the quantified tool can be applied to determine the associated effective activation energy. The unified multiple stress reliability model for electronic devices is applied to Normally-Off Power GaN transistor technologies to quantify and predict the reliability figures of this electronic type of product when operating under multiple stresses in an embedded system operating under such harsh environment conditions as set for Aerospace, Space, Nuclear, Submarine, Transport or Ground application.

A controllable approach to the formation of III- nitride nanocrystalline structures using hydrothermal assisted method is presented. The structural and morphological properties of the prepared nanostructures are analyzed using X-ray diffraction, Fast Fourier Transformation and transmission electron microscope techniques. The temperature dependent structural formation of nitride nanostructures have been systematically investigated using X-ray diffraction. Raman spectra of the samples grown at optimized condition exhibited different phonon modes of the respective nitrides (GaN, InN and InxGa1-xN). Nanoparticles and nanorods formation of the indium nitride and indium gallium nitride are observed in the TEM micrographs. FFT analysis revealed that the synthesized III-nitride nanostructures are of good crystalline quality. Nanorods of these nitrides showed better crystalline quality than the nanoparticles in the FFT reflections. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

In this work, for the first time we investigated controlling the quantum efficiencies of III-nitride LED/SC (solar cells) new energy accumulating elements and supercapacitors as energy storage devices (Enestors). It has been shown that the atomic content in these microenergetic devices gives large possibilities for energy storage from solar light. The developed technique is promising to make ideal new functional LED, LD and SC with a high quantum efficiency and small leakage. This technology can be realized using Si/A3B5 integrated processor technology epitaxy with computer driving.

The band gap of III-nitride semiconductors cover a wide range from 0.77eV (band gap of InN) to 6.2eV (AlN). Thus, light-emitting diodes emitting from infrared to deep into ultraviolet can be fabricated using ternary III-nitrides InGaN, AlGaN, and AlInN with appropriate composition. However, growing the compounds with any desirable composition often encounters substantial difficulties due to phase separation, structural quality of the epilayers, impurities and extended defects, etc. The spatial inhomogeneity of emission properties in III-nitride epilayers and quantum well structures provides an informative insight into carrier migration, localization, and recombination and is important for development of light-emitting devices. In this paper, we introduce the techniques for luminescence study with spatial resolution (microphotoluminescence, confocal microscopy, scanning near field optical microscopy and cathodoluminescence), discuss material properties leading to emission inhomogeneity and review results on spatial distribution of photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence in InGaN and AlGaN, which are the most important ternary III-nitride compounds for application in light-emitting devices.http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.17.4.768

We review Ill-Nitride optoelectronic device technologies with an emphasis on recent breakthroughs. We start with a brief summary of historical accomplishments and then report the state of the art in three key spectral regimes as follows: 1) Ultraviolet (AIGaN-based avalanche photodiodes, single photon detectors, focal plane arrays, and light emitting diodes); 2) Visible (InGaN-based solid state lighting, lasers, and solar cells); and 3) Near-, mid-infrared, and terahertz (AIGaN/GaN-based gap-engineered intersubband devices). We also describe future trends in Ill-Nitride optoelectronic devices.

The fabrication studies of silica/polystyrene (PS) colloidal microlens arrays with various aspect ratios were performed on the III-nitride light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The use of colloidal-based microlens arrays led to significant enhancement in light extraction efficiency for III-nitride LEDs. In varying the aspect ratios of the microlens arrays, the engineering of various PS thicknesses was employed by using high-temperature treatment and redeposition process. The effects of PS thickness on the light extraction efficiency and far-field emission patterns of InGaN quantum-well (QW) LEDs were studied. The total output powers of microlens LEDs with various PS thicknesses exhibited 1.93-2.70 times enhancement over that of planar LEDs, and the use of optimized PS layer thickness is important in leading the enhancement of the light extraction efficiency in large angular direction.

In this paper, we introduce III-nitrides based 1× 4 optical power splitter for underwater optical communication applications. To the best of our knowledge, this is a first study for the design of multimode interference (MMI) and four-branch taper waveguide based on GaN/sapphire. The microstructure of GaN semiconductor grown by Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) on (0001) sapphire reported. The numerical experimental is conducted using the 3D FD-BPM method. The results showed that the optical power splitter has an excess loss of 0.013 dB and imbalance of 0.17 dB. The results open the opportunity for the future device using this technology for the underwater application.

Nanostructured semiconductors have a clear potential for improved optoelectronic devices, such as high-efficiency light-emitting diodes (LEDs). However, most arrays of semiconductor nanorods suffer from having relatively low densities (or “fill factors”) and a high degree of nonuniformity, especially when produced by self-organized growth. Ideally an array of nanorods for an optoelectronic emitter should have a fill factor close to 100%, with uniform rod diameter and height. In this article we present a “space-filling” approach for forming defect-free arrays of AlN nanorods, whereby the separation between each rod can be controlled to 5 nm due to a self-limiting process. These arrays of pyramidal-topped AlN nanorods formed over wafer-scale areas by metal organic chemical vapor deposition provide a defect-free semipolar top surface, for potential optoelectronic device applications with the highest reported fill factor at 98%.

Various practical issues affecting atom probe tomography (APT) analysis of III-nitride semiconductors have been studied as part of an investigation using a c-plane InAlN/GaN heterostructure. Specimen preparation was undertaken using a focused ion beam microscope with a mono-isotopic Ga source. This enabled the unambiguous observation of implantation damage induced by sample preparation. In the reconstructed InAlN layer Ga implantation was demonstrated for the standard “clean-up” voltage (5 kV), but this was significantly reduced by using a lower voltage (e.g., 1 kV). The characteristics of APT data from the desorption maps to the mass spectra and measured chemical compositions were examined within the GaN buffer layer underlying the InAlN layer in both pulsed laser and pulsed voltage modes. The measured Ga content increased monotonically with increasing laser pulse energy and voltage pulse fraction within the examined ranges. The best results were obtained at very low laser energy, with the Ga content close to the expected stoichiometric value for GaN and the associated desorption map showing a clear crystallographic pole structure.

IIIV photonics on silicon is an active and promising research area. Here, we demonstrate room-temperature (RT) lasing in short-wavelength III-nitride photonic crystal nanobeam cavities grown on silicon featuring a single InGaN quantum well (QW). In the low-absorption QW region, high quality factors in excess of 104 are measured, while RT blue lasing under continuous-wave optical pumping is reported in the high-absorption wavelength range, hence the high QW gain region. Lasing characteristics are well accounted for by the large spontaneous emission coupling factor (beta > 0.8) inherent to the nanobeam geometry and the large InGaN QW material gain. Our work illustrates the high potential of III-nitrides on silicon for the realization of low power nanophotonic devices with a reduced footprint that would be of prime interest for fundamental lightmatter interaction studies and a variety of lab-on-a-chip applications including biophotonics.

Due to their potential to improve the performance of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), novel device structures based on nanowires, surface plasmons, and large-area high-power devices have received increasing amount of interest. These structures are almost exclusively based on the double hetero junction (DHJ) structure, that has remained essentially unchanged for decades. In this work we study a III-nitride diffusion injected light-emitting diode (DILED), in which the active region is located outside the pn-junction and the excitation of the active region is based on bipolar diffusion of charge carriers. This unorthodox approach removes the need of placing the active region in the conventional current path and thus enabling carrier injection in device structures, which would be challenging to realize with the conventional DHJ design. The structure studied in this work is has 3 indium gallium nitride / gallium nitride (InGaN/GaN) quantum wells (QWs) under a GaN pn-junction. The QWs are grown at diferent growth temperatures for obtaining distinctive luminescence peaks. This allows to obtain knowledge on the carrier diffusion in the structure. When the device is biased, all QWs emit light indicating a significant diffusion current into the QW stack.

Silicon-doped GaN epilayers and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures were developed by nitrogen plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on high resistivity iron-doped GaN (0001) templates and their properties were investigated by atomic force microscopy, x-ray diffraction and Hall effect measurements. In the case of high electron mobility transistors heterostructures, the AlN mole fraction and the thickness of the AlGaN barrier employed were in the range of from 0.17 to 0.36 and from 7.5 to 30 nm, respectively. All structures were capped with a 2 nm GaN layer. Despite the absence of Ga droplets formation on the surface, growth of both GaN and AlGaN by RF-MBE on the GaN (0001) surfaces followed a step-flow growth mode resulting in low surface roughness and very abrupt heterointerfaces, as revealed by XRD. Reciprocal space maps around the (10 over(1, ̄) 5) reciprocal space point reveal that the AlGaN barriers are fully coherent with the GaN layer. GaN layers, n-doped with silicon in the range from 1015 to 1019 cm-3 exhibited state of the art electrical properties, consistent with a low unintentional background doping level and low compensation ratio. The carrier concentration versus silicon cell temperatures followed an Arhenius behaviour in the whole investigated doping range. The degenerate 2DEG, at the AlGaN/GaN heteroiterfaces, exhibited high Hall mobilities reaching 1860 cm2/V s at 300 K and 10 220 cm2/V s at 77 K for a sheet carrier density of 9.6E12 cm-2. The two dimensional degenerate electron gas concentration in the GaN capped AlGaN/GaN structures was also calculated by self-consistent solving the Schrödinger-Poisson equations. Comparison with the experimental measured values reveals a Fermi level pinning of the GaN (0001) surface at about 0.8 eV below the GaN conduction band. © 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 40 313 319 313-319

International audience; Five-period AlN/BAlN heterostructure containing boron as high as 11% has been successfully grown by MOVPE. Good periodicity of two alternative layers has been observed by both SIMS profile and Z-contrast HAADF-STEM images. The BAlN layers demonstrate columnar polycrystalline feature. The BAlN layers exhibit an emission peak by CL and absorption edge in transmission spectra at around 260 nm. The results enable the development of BAlGaN based multi-layered heterostructure for UV and deep UV applications.

Based on numerical simulation and comparison with measured current characteristics, we show that the current in InGaN/GaN single-quantum-well light-emitting diodes at low forward bias can be accurately described by a standard trap-assisted tunneling model. The qualitative and quantitative differences in the current characteristics of devices with different emission wavelengths are demonstrated to be correlated in a physically consistent way with the tunneling model parameters.

Despite a high dislocation density and a strong polarization effect, during the past two decades, Gallium Nitride (GaN) based Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) have emerged as solid state light sources in the spectral range from visible to ultraviolet. InGaN/GaN based Multiple Quantum Wells (MQWs) are employed as active layers in GaN based LEDs. It is well known that due to the lack of native substrates, GaN based devices are usually grown heteroepitaxially on substrates such as sapphire, resulting in a high density of Threading Dislocations (TDs) (~108 cm-2 – 109 cm-2) which traverse vertically from the substrate to the epilayer surface1. In addition, the surface defects such as V shaped defects and trench defects2,3 have also been observed in InGaN QW structures grown by Metal Organic Vapor Phase Epitaxy (MOVPE). These defects as a whole have a deleterious impact on the performance of LED Devices4,5. In earlier studies it was believed that the dislocations do not contribute to the electronic states of GaN and are electrically inert6,7. Recent findings have shown that the TDs can be optically and electrically active8. It is also reported that screw and mixed TDs act as non radiative recombination centres while the edge TDs are optically inert9. However, the effects of these defects on the electrical and optical properties of LED devices are still not fully understood. In this paper, we investigated a GaN based blue LED structure, containing a high density of dislocations, in order to get information about the effect of these dislocations on the micro structural, electronic and optical behaviours of these LEDs. The present work reports on the characterization of InGaN/GaN based LED structures by Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), which aimed at the detailed study of surface morphology and defect structures. The electrical properties of defects were studied by Electron Beam Induced Current (EBIC) and the luminescence properties of these LEDs were studied by Electroluminescence (EL).

Research on GaN, AlN, InN (III-N) and their alloys is achieving new heights due their high potential applications in photonics and electronics. III-N semiconductors are mostly grown epitaxially on sapphire, and due to the large lattice mismatch and the differences in the thermal expansion coefficients, the structures usually contain many threading dislocations (TDs). While their structural properties have been widely investigated, their electrical characteristics and their role in the transport properties of the devices are still debated. In the present contribution we will show conductive AFM studies of TDs in GaN and Al/In GaN ternary alloys to evidence the role of strain, different surface polarity and composition on their electrical properties. Local I-V curves measured at TDs allowed us to clarify their role in the macroscopic electrical properties (leakage current, mobilities) of III-N based devices. Samples obtained by different growers (AIXTRON, III-V Lab) were studied. The comparison between the results obtained in the different alloys allowed us to understand the role of In and Al on the TDs electrical properties.

III-nitrides (III-Ns) semiconductors and their alloys have shown in the last few years high potential for interesting applications in photonics and electronics. III-Ns based heterostructures (HS) have been under wide investigation for different applications such as high frequency transistors, ultraviolet photodetector, light emitters etc. In the present contribution a III-Ns based heterostructure, in particular the nearly lattice matched Al1-xInxN/AlN/GaN HS will be discussed. The formation of the two dimensional electron gas (2DEG), its origin, its electrical and optical properties, the confined subband states in the well and its effect on the conduction mechanisms have been studied. Moreover, extended defects and their effect on the degradation phenomena of the 2DEG have been analyzed.

Current-voltage measurements with Schottky contacts in a planar back-to-back configuration have been performed for InAlN/AlN/GaN heterostructures with different AlN interlayer thicknesses. We have identified the onset of a 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) controlled conduction from current-voltage curves analyses. A model has been proposed to determine the 2DEG electrical properties and the effects of the AlN thickness on the measured current-voltage curves have been discussed. The 2DEG properties extracted from current-voltage analyses have been compared with Hall measurements which shows excellent agreement in values. (© 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Self-heating effects and temperature rise in AlGaN/GaN HEMTs grown on silicon and sapphire substrates are studied, exploiting transistor DC characterization methods. A negative differential output resistance is observed for high dissipated power levels. An analytical formula for a source-drain current drop as a function of parasitic source resistance and threshold voltage changes is proposed to explain this behavior. The transistor source resistance and threshold voltage is determined experimentally at different elevated temperatures to construct channel temperature versus dissipated power transfer characteristic. It is found that the HEMT channel temperature increases rapidly with dissipated power and at 6 W/mm reaches values of /spl sim/320/spl deg/C for sapphire and /spl sim/95/spl deg/C for silicon substrate, respectively.

We report on the current transport properties of AlInN/AlN/GaN high electron mobility transitors with different AlN interlayer thickness. We determined the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) properties directly from simple current-voltage measurements, carried out with two Schottky contacts in a planar back-to-back configuration. A model has been developed to straightforwardly extract the 2DEG electrical properties from room-temperature current-voltage curves, and we correlated them to the effects of varying AlN thickness. The 2DEG properties calculated from current-voltage analyses are in very good agreement with results obtained with standard Hall measurements.

AlInN/AlN/GaN heterostructures were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM) in semi-contact and conductive mode. These indium-related alloys contain threading dislocations (TDs) with a density around 108 ~109cm−2, originating from the GaN (0001) substrate grown on sapphire. The TDs, with screw or mixed components, terminate at the surface of overgrown layers as V-defects. Using semi-contact AFM (phase-imaging) mode, we traced sites of indium segregation at the V-defects. These sites in V-defects were found to be highly conductive by current-AFM and could be a possible cause for the leakage current in Schottky diodes.

International audience; The InAlN/GaN heterojunction is a new alternative to the common AlGaN/GaN configuration with high sheet charge density and high thermal stability, promising very high power and temperature performance as well as robustness. The status, focussing on the lattice matched materials configuration is reviewed.

We report on metal–semiconductor–metal (MSM) photodetectors (PDs) fabricated on InAlGaN/GaN two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) heterostructures. Electrical and photodetection properties were compared in two structures with and without an AlN spacer between the barrier (InAlGaN) and the GaN. The presence of the spacer hugely reduces the leakage current, allowing biasing at higher voltages. In photodetection, gain is obtained in both structures at a high bias. The photocurrent transient behavior revealed a faster response for excitation energy close to the GaN band edge than for energy above the barrier band edge. The fabrication and improvement of this type of device can lead to integration with the already mature high-electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) technology.

Wide band-gap semiconductors, particularly III-nitrides, became one of the most studied materials during the last decades. These compounds are the base of a new generation of optoelectronic devices operating in the UV-Blue region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Incorporation of rare-earth (RE) ions into nitrides creates new routes to build all-nitride electroluminescent devices, using the sharp intra-4fn transitions of these elements. The introduction of the RE ions in the nitride lattice during the growth or by ion implantation creates defects which influence the optical behaviour of the doped region. In this work we report the results on Yb implanted GaN. A combination of techniques (Rutherford backscattering/Channeling and Photoluminescence) was used to assess the mechanisms responsible for the optical and structural behaviour of the doped materials. Lattice site location experiments showed that Yb is incorporated into positions slightly displaced from the Ga-site. Clearly the optical activity of the RE could be enhanced by orders of magnitude reducing the number of non-radiative recombination paths related with defects.