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The optical and electrical properties of silicon-doped epitaxial gallium nitride layers grown on sapphire have been studied. The studies have been performed over a wide range of silicon concentrations on each side of the Mott transition. The critical concentrations of Si atoms corresponding to the formation of an impurity band in gallium nitride (∼2.5 × 1018 cm−3) and to the overlap of the impurity band with the conduction band (∼2 × 1019 cm−3) have been refined. The maximum of the photoluminescence spectrum shifts nonmonotonically with increasing doping level. This shift is determined by two factors: (1) an increase in the exchange interaction leading to a decrease in the energy gap width and (2) a change in the radiation mechanism as the donor concentration increases. The temperature dependence of the exciton luminescence with participating optical phonons has been studied. The energies of phonon-plasmon modes in GaN: Si layers with different silicon concentrations have been measured using Raman spectroscopy.

In this paper we report on the MOCVD growth and characterization of GaN structures and InGaN single quantum wells grown on pillar patterned GaN/sapphire templates. During the regrowth a network of voids was intentionally formed at the interface of sapphire substrate and GaN epitaxial layer. The regrowth process was found to decrease the threading dislocation density of the overgrown layer. The quantum well sample grown on patterned template showed significantly higher optical output in photoluminescence measurements compared to the reference sample with identical internal quantum efficiency characteristics. We attribute the increase to enhanced light extraction efficiency caused by strong scattering and redirection of light from the scattering elements.

Carrier lifetimes of the recombination processes in light emitting diodes (LEDs) depend strongly on the operating point. We measure the carrier lifetimes of InGaN/GaN LEDs at low current densities by applying the differential carrier lifetime analysis. In the measurement setup the LED is driven with constant current modulated with small amplitude alternating current (AC) and the carrier lifetime is obtained from the phase difference between input AC and light output. In addition to the optical method, we also extract the lifetimes directly from the capacitance and differential resistance of the LED obtained using an impedance analyzer and compare the results to lifetimes obtained by the optical setup. The carrier lifetimes were found to increase from hundreds of nanoseconds to microseconds when the current density was decreased from tens of A/cm2 to tens of mA/cm2. Both measurement methods resulted in similar lifetimes (© 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Surface plasmon polaritons are investigated in heavily doped n-GaN epitaxial layers. The grating etched on the surface of the epitaxial layer is used to convert photons into the surface plasmon polaritons and vice versa. The spectral study of reflection demonstrates the possibility of nonequilibrium surface plasmon polaritons excitation due to terahertz radiation scattering on the grating. Terahertz electroluminescence is investigated under lateral electric field. The luminescence spectrum demonstrates a significant contribution of nonequilibrium surface plasmon polariton scattering to terahertz radiation emission.

The effect of addition of superlattice (SL) and the structure of the upper barrier layer on the luminescence processes occurring in light-emitting nanoheterostructures was studied. It was shown that the optimum is using of structures with two SL: InGaN / InGaN structure in the lower part and the AlGaN / GaN for the top p-layer. It is shown that the using of the SL InGaN / InGaN in the vicinity of the active region optimally compensate the elastic stresses and the piezoelectric field at the hetero boundaries. Such compensation of elastic stresses reduces the formation of dislocations in these structures, which increases the radiation intensity.

We present near-UV GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on patterned GaN/sapphire templates with improved material quality and light extraction efficiency. Enhancement of light extraction efficiency is attributed to voids generated at the GaN/sapphire interface. The sidewall inclination angle of the voids can be controlled from nearly vertical (∼ 85°) to fully inclined (∼ 60°) by changing the initial patterning dimensions. Light extraction efficiency and material quality improve with a decreasing void sidewall angle. A 20% increase in the light output is observed at 20 mA of input current for LED structures with ∼60° inclined sidewall voids.