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We demonstrated 1 the formation of excellent Ohmic contact to p-type GaN (including the plasma etching-damaged p-type GaN which otherwise exhibited undetectable current within 15V) by the post-growth diffusion of magnesium. The specific contact resistivity on the order of 10-4 Ω.cm2 (extracted at V=0V) was achieved on the plasma-damaged p-GaN with linear current-voltage characteristics by the transfer length method (TLM) measurement. The improvement in current by a factor of over 109 was also obtained on the plasma-damaged p-n junction diode after the same Mg-treatment. These experimental results indicate a great potential of post-growth diffusion of Mg to overcome the bottleneck of forming a good Ohmic contact to p-GaN.

Deep-ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) based on AlGaN crystals have low light-emission efficiency; therefore, there is a need to improve this light-emission efficiency for a wide range of applications such as water and air sterilizations. UV-light-transparent device structures are considered one of the many solutions toward increasing light output power. To this end, the present study focused on developing a transparent AlGaN-based tunnel junction (TJ) as the anode of a deep-UV LED. Deep-UV LEDs composed of n+/p+-type AlGaN TJs were fabricated under the growth condition that reduced the carrier compensation in the n+-type AlGaN layers. The operating voltage was 10.8 V under the direct current (DC) operation of 63 A/cm2. In addition, magnesium zinc oxide (MgZnO)/Al reflective electrodes were fabricated to enhance the output power of the AlGaN homoepitaxial TJ LED. The output power was 57.3 mW under a DC operation of 63 A/cm2, and it was 1.7 times higher than that realized using the conventional Ti/Al electrodes. The combination of the AlGaN-based TJ and MgZnO/Al reflective contact allows further improvement of the light output power. This study confirms that the AlGaN TJ is a promising UV-transmittance structure that can obtain a high light-extraction efficiency.

Conventional lumped small signal circuit (SSC) models of AlGaN/GaN metal oxide semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOS-HEMTs) are derived from the low frequency portion of the experimentally measured Y-parameters. Consequently, these models cannot faithfully capture the high frequency behavior of the device. In this work, modified SSC models of AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs are developed by fitting the entire broadband measured Y-parameters of the device with rational functions. These rational functions are then physically realized using additional passive circuit elements added to the conventional SSC model. The accuracy of the proposed SSC models can be improved by increasing the order of the rational functions. The proposed models are demonstrably more accurate than the conventional SSC models in estimating the higher order poles and zeroes present in the experimentally measured Y-parameters of AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs.

Purpose We demonstrate cyclotron production of high-quality 225Ac using an electroplated 226Ra target. Methods 226Ra was extracted from legacy Ra sources using a chelating resin. Subsequent ion-exchange purification gave pure 226Ra with a certain amount of carrier Ba. The radium target was prepared by electroplating. We successfully deposited about 37 MBq of 226Ra on a target box. Maximum activation was achieved using 15.6 MeV protons on the target at 20 µA for 5 h. Two functional resins with various concentrations of nitric acid purified 225Ac and recovered 226Ra. Cooling the intermediate 225Ac for 2–3 weeks decayed the major byproduct of 226Ac and increased the radionuclidic purity of 225Ac. Repeating the same separation protocol provided high-quality 225Ac. Results We obtained 225Ac at a yield of about 2.4 MBq at the end of bombardment (EOB), and the subsequent initial purification gave 1.7 MBq of 225Ac with 226Ac/225Ac ratio of

We have demonstrated the fabrication process for a lateral p-type Schottky barrier diode (SBD) with the annealed Mg ohmic contact layer on a MOVPE-grown p-GaN wafer and measured the electrical characteristic of the diode. Because of the selective-area ohmic contact, the interface between the Schottky electrode and p-type GaN is well protected from any damage introduced by dry-etching or regrowth. The ideality factor of the forward current–voltage characteristic is as low as 1.09 at room temperature and an on–off ratio above 109 is also achieved. Various metals are deposited as the Schottky electrode and the work function dependence of the Schottky barrier height is confirmed with a pinning factor of 0.58. The temperature dependence of the current–voltage characteristic indicates that the GaN p-type SBD still fits the thermionic emission mode at 600 K with an ideality factor of 1.1. The reverse current of the p-SBD is also studied with the Poole–Frenkel emission model, and the trap energy level in the p-GaN is confirmed.

Traditional lumped small signal equivalent circuit models of AlGaN/GaN metal oxide semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOS-HEMTs) are made up of constant valued circuit elements. Such models are unable to capture the high frequency behavior (above 20 GHz) of the device. In this work, a modified small signal equivalent circuit model of AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs is presented. The key feature of the proposed model is that the values of the different circuit elements in the model are considered to be frequency dependent in nature and not constants. The frequency dependent value of each circuit element is mathematically represented using polynomial functions where the coefficients of the functions are determined via a least-square curve fitting approach. This frequency dependent attribute of the circuit element values ensures that the proposed model is very accurate at high frequencies without sacrificing the compactness of the model topology. The accuracy of the proposed model has been verified up to 50 GHz using experimentally measured Y-parameters of AlGaN/GaN MOS-HEMTs having a different gate dielectric and gate length.

Hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and diamond are promising materials for next-generation electronics and optoelectronics. However, their combination is rarely reported. In this study, we for the first time demonstrate the success to direct growth of two-dimensional (2D) hBN crystal layers on diamond substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. Compared with the disordered growth we found on diamond (100), atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy results all support 2D hBN with highly oriented lattice formation on diamond (111). Also, the epitaxial relationship between hBN and diamond (111) substrate is revealed to be [0 0 0 1]hBN // [1 1 1]diamond and [1 0 1 0]hBN // [1 1 2]diamond. The valence band offset at hBN/diamond (111) heterointerface determined by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is 1.4 ± 0.2 eV, thus yielding a conduction band offset of 1.0 ± 0.2 eV and type II staggered band alignment with a bandgap of 5.9 eV assumed for hBN. Furthermore, prior thermal cleaning of diamond in a pure H2 atmosphere smoothens the surface for well-ordered layered hBN epitaxy, while thermal cleaning in a mixed H2 and NH3 atmosphere etches the diamond surface, creating many small faceted pits that destroy the following epitaxy of hBN.

Since Rare-Earth (RE) doped Gallium Nitride (GaN) is expected to be used as electrically driven single photon source at room temperature, low dose RE-ion implantation and their activation as luminescent centers are of interest. This paper reports photoluminescence (PL) properties of Praseodymium (Pr) implanted GaN at different temperatures ranging from room temperature to 1200 °C. All the Pr-implanted GaN samples are thermally annealed after implantation and show strong PL emissions at 650.2 nm and 652.0 nm, originated from 3P0→3F2 transition in 4f-shell of Pr3+ ions. It is shown that the PL intensity originating from Pr3+ ions is reduced as the implantation temperature increases for the Pr-implanted samples annealed at 1200 °C. This result suggests that Pr3+ ions quench due to the formation of complex defects and defect clusters. The effect of high temperature implantation on the recovery of GaN crystallinity is discussed in terms of critical dose and displacement damage.

The impacts of pulsed-flow growth on aluminium incorporation in polar (0001), semipolar (103) and (112), as well as nonpolar (100) AlGaN layers have been investigated. The layers were grown simultaneously on differently oriented AlN/sapphire templates by metal–organic vapour phase epitaxy. The AlN mole fraction (0 < xAlN ≤ 0.85) of the layers was varied by simply changing the supply time of the aluminium precursor while keeping nitrogen and gallium precursors constant. Phase separation has been observed for the (0001) and (112) layers by X-ray diffraction, and is attributed to their different surface reconstructions during growth. In contrast, no phase separation has been observed for the (100) and (103) layers, attributed to their stable surfaces during growth. The AlN mole fraction of the differently oriented layers generally follows the order: (112) < (0001) < (103) ≤ (100), attributed to their different surface dangling-bond densities. By means of room-temperature photoluminescence measurements, high carbon-incorporation has quantitatively been found in all the layers.

We demonstrated nanoplatelet In x Ga1−x N pseudosubstrates with In content varying from 0 to 0.3 on low-dislocation-density GaN substrates. These nanoplatelets efficiently relax in-plane strain, thus allowing for the use of a thick active layer to reduce built-in polarization. The 15 nm thick InGaN active layers grown under the same conditions on these nanoplatelets showed a remarkable cathodoluminescence redshift from 460 to 617 nm, suggesting enhanced In incorporation efficiency in InGaN nanoplatelets with higher In content. Moreover, the 617 nm-emitting sample presented an imperceptible blueshift under excitation-power-dependent photoluminescence, indicating a weak polarization field introduced by the high-In-content pseudosubstrates and the thick active layer.

Pulsed electron beams from a photocathode using an InGaN semiconductor have brought selectively scanning technology to scanning electron microscopes, where the electron beam irradiation intensity and area can be arbitrarily selected within the field of view in SEM images. The p-type InGaN semiconductor crystals grown in the metalorganic chemical vapor deposition equipment were used as the photocathode material for the electron beam source after the surface was activated to a negative electron affinity state in the electron gun under ultrahigh vacuum. The InGaN semiconductor photocathode produced a pulsed electron beam with a rise and fall time of 3 ns, consistent with the time structure of the irradiated pulsed laser used for the optical excitation of electrons. The InGaN photocathode-based electron gun achieved a total beam operation time of 1300 h at 15 μA beam current with a downtime rate of 4% and a current stability of 0.033% after 23 cycles of surface activation and continuous beam operation. The InGaN photocathode-based electron gun has been installed in the conventional scanning electron microscope by replacing the original field emission gun. SEM imaging was performed by selective electron beaming, in which the scanning signal of the SEM system was synchronized with the laser for photocathode excitation to irradiate arbitrary regions in the SEM image at arbitrary intensity. The accuracy of the selection of regions in the SEM image by the selective electron beam was pixel by pixel at the TV scan speed (80 ns/pix, 25 frame/s) of the SEM.

Previously reported UV-C laser diode (LD) structures have been subject to design constraints owing to dark line defects at the edge of the mesa stripe after device fabrication. To address this issue, a detailed analysis revealed that the dark line defects were dislocations generated by local residual shear stresses associated with mesa formation on highly strained epitaxial layers. A technique for controlling the local concentration of shear stress using a sloped mesa geometry was proposed based on insight gained by modeling the stress distribution at the edge of the mesa stripe. Experimental results showed that this technique succeeded in completely suppressing the emergence of dark-line defects. This technique will be useful in improving the performance of pseudomorphic AlGaN/AlN-based optoelectronic devices, including UV-C LDs.

We demonstrate high, up to 30% In content InGaN sub-micrometer platelets on GaN by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy. These InGaN platelets were selectively grown on flat GaN seeds formed in sub-micrometer-scale openings in a SiNx mask. The platelets were highly uniform without any dislocations or pits, with an atomically flat (0001) surface. The typical height was ∼120 nm, which significantly exceeded the normal critical layer thickness of a c-plane InGaN film. The strain state was comprehensively characterized by microbeam x-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. Due to a gradual elastic relaxation of strain, the In content increased almost linearly from bottom to top because of the strong strain-dependent In incorporation. These platelets can serve as high-quality strain-relaxed templates for long wavelength micro-light-emitting diodes.

We evaluated Mg-diffusion into GaN from GaN/Mg mixture. The diffusion depth of Mg increased with diffusion temperature from 1100 °C to 1300 °C, whereas the Mg concentration remained constant at 2–3 × 1018 cm−3 independent of temperature. The estimated activation energy for Mg diffusion was 2.8 eV, from which the substitutional diffusion mechanism was predicted. Mg-diffused GaN samples showed p-type conductivity with a maximum hole mobility of 27.7 cm2 V−1 s−1, suggesting that substitutional diffusion contributes to Mg activation. This diffusion technique can be used to easily form p-type GaN and has potential as a p-type selective doping technique.

The precise control of Mg concentration ([Mg]) in p-type GaN layers from 2.3 × 1016 to 2.0 × 1019 cm−3 was demonstrated by halide vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE) on n-type GaN (0001) freestanding substrates. [Mg] in GaN layers could be controlled well by varying the input partial pressure of MgCl2 formed by a chemical reaction between MgO solid and HCl gas under the thermodynamic equilibrium condition. In the sample with [Mg] of 2.0 × 1019 cm−3, a step-bunched surface was observed because the surface migration of Ga adatoms was enhanced by the surfactant effect of Mg atoms. The samples show high structural qualities determined from x-ray rocking curve measurements. The acceptor concentration was in good agreement with [Mg], indicating that almost all Mg atoms act as acceptors. The compensating donor concentrations in the samples were higher than the concentrations of Si, O, and C impurities. We also obtained the Mg acceptor level at a sufficiently low net acceptor concentration of 245 ± 2 meV. These results show that the HVPE method is promising for fabricating GaN vertical power devices, such as n-channel metal–oxide–semiconductor field-effect transistors.

Gallium nitride (GaN)-based devices surpass the traditional silicon-based power devices in terms of higher breakdown voltage, faster-switching speed, higher thermal conductivity, and lower on-resistance. However, heteroepitaxial GaN growths like GaN on sapphire are not suitable for power devices due to the threading dislocation densities as high as 108/cm2. Recently, homoepitaxial GaN growth has become possible thanks to the native GaN substrates with dislocation densities in the order of 104/cm2 but the extremely high cost of the GaN substrates makes the homoepitaxy method unacceptable for industrial applications, and the slicing of wafers for reusing them is an effective solution for cost reduction. In this study, we will investigate a route for slicing the GaN single crystal substrate by controlling the laser pulse energy and changing the distance between each laser shot. The 2D and 3D crack propagations are observed by a multiphoton confocal microscope, and the cross section of samples is observed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that two types of radial and lateral cracking occurred depending on the pulse energy and shot pitch, and controlling them was of importance for attaining a smooth GaN substrate slicing. Cross-sectional SEM images showed that at suitable pulse energy and distance, crack propagation could be controlled with respect to the irradiation plane.

The decomposition of ammonia (NH3) in nitrogen (N2) ambient was studied under non-equilibrium conditions similar to those in a metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) reactor during the epitaxial growth of group-III nitrides. The gas phase was sampled at different positions and analyzed using a time-of-flight mass spectrometry system with a high resolution (better than 0.002 u). Our results expand earlier findings. Even at the high temperature of 1200 °C, only 26% of NH3 decomposed in a clean metal-free reactor, whereas a higher ratio of NH3 decomposition was realized in the presence of stainless steel. The activation energy in the clean reactor was calculated to be 0.965 ± 0.004 eV. These results demonstrate the capability of our setup and shed new light on the elucidation of the vapor phase growth mechanism of group III-nitrides by MOVPE.

This study examines the effect of (000−1) GaN substrate misorientation on the residual impurities and surface morphology of N-polar GaN grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy. Carbon, silicon, and oxygen concentrations decreased with increasing GaN substrate misorientation angle, with the lowest impurity concentration achieved for a misorientation angle of 2° toward the m-axis, with 6×10^15cm^−3 carbon, 6×10^15cm^−3 silicon, and 4×10^17cm^−3 oxygen atoms. The oxygen concentration was measured at a depth of 0.5μm below the wafer surface, and the oxygen concentration decreased with increasing thickness. The incorporation of carbon and oxygen revealed a strong dependence on the misorientation angle. The step distance height of the steps parallel to the [11−20] direction (or perpendicular to the [1−100] m-direction) was confirmed to be a double-height layer step. This phenomenon indicated that m-direction steps are stable for N-polar growth in GaN. In cases of large misorientation toward the m-axis in of the GaN substrate it was difficult to control the misorientation perpendicular to the nominal direction leading to a-axis direction by wafer bowing at wafer manufacturing. Therefore, step-bunching was generated for each symmetric m-axis due to an increase in the compound's off-angle, thus causing the surface roughness to become large., ファイル公開：2021-04-15

Wafer trays with different gaps (the distance between the top of the pocket and the bottom of the wafer) were used to grow InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) in a horizontal metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) reactor. The numerical reactor simulation revealed that at the similar surface temperature the gas phase temperature around the wafer increases due to an increased wafer tray temperature. This increased gas phase temperature is expected to increase the effective V/III ratio by enhanced NH3 decomposition. Photoluminescence (PL) intensities of long-wavelength MQWs increased at the same indium content by the enhanced gas phase temperature, while the emission became narrow. This is related to a smoother topography at higher gas phase temperatures.

The morphology of thin InGaN layers grown on c-plane GaN substrates by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) has been studied by atomic force microscopy. Three different morphologies appeared, a stepped surface, large flat two-dimensional (2D) islands and small high three-dimensional (3D) dots. Low growth temperature and high growth rate (i.e. increased vapor supersaturation) changed the InGaN morphology from steps to 2D islands and then 3D dots (when exceeding the critical thickness for 3D dots). Larger miscut angle of GaN substrate changed the morphology from 2D islands to step by decreasing the surface supersaturation of individual terraces. InGaN layers with a stepped morphology had the highest internal quantum efficiency at similar InN mole fraction. InGaN grown on GaN substrate more easily achieved a stepped morphology compared to InGaN on GaN/sapphire templates.

We studied indium incorporation into InGaN/GaN quantum wells grown by metal–organic vapor phase epitaxy by systematically varying of gallium and indium precursor flows on (0001), (10[Formula: see text]3), (11[Formula: see text]2), and (10[Formula: see text]0) orientations. The layer thickness and indium composition obtained from x-ray diffraction analysis were correlated with a model based on indium and gallium incorporation efficiencies. In the model, the indium incorporation efficiency is reproduced by the Langmuir surface coverage of gallium, indicating that indium atoms close to gallium atoms can be incorporated preferably.

The effects of halide vapor phase epitaxial (HVPE) growth conditions such as input V/III ratio and substrate off-cut angle on the surface morphology of n-type GaN layers grown on GaN (0001) freestanding substrates were investigated to develop a model for growing smooth surfaces. The spiral hillock density increased with increasing input V/III ratio and/or decreasing off-cut angle. The critical off-cut angle between the spiral growth and the step-flow growth depended on the vapor supersaturation calculated by thermodynamic analysis. To understand the transition of the growth mode, we proposed a Burton–Cabrera–Frank-theory-based model considering the effect of spiral growth, which was utilized to explain the obtained experimental results. The developed growth model can be effective for predicting the HVPE growth mode between the spiral growth and the step-flow growth.

Energy-dispersive X-ray signals calibrated by Rutherford backscattering indicated the generation of Al13/24Ga11/24N in Ga-rich stripes in a nonflat Al0.58Ga0.42N layer. Also, the CL peak wavelengths of ∼259 and 272 nm also showed the generation of Al15/24Ga9/24N and Al13/24Ga11/24N in Al-rich zones and Ga-rich stripes, respectively. The wavelength of a strong CL peak at ∼246 nm, which was observed from the Al0.7Ga0.3N layer in our previous study, is also considered to correspond to the near-band-emission wavelengths of Al17/24Ga7/24N. In particular, the stronger reproducibility of metastable Al15/24Ga9/24N generation was confirmed, in agreement with the computed predictions by other research groups.

Recently, quality of free-standing gallium nitride (GaN) substrate has been improved. For example, single crystal GaN substrate with threading dislocation density (TDD) of 104 cm-2 is available. Meanwhile, there is a progress in observation method of dislocation in GaN. In addition to conventional etch pits method, X-ray topography, and CL observation, recently, multiphoton PL microscope which can observe dislocation three-dimensionally is actively being carried out. However, these methods are not simple observation because these are destructive observation or require a lot of labor and time. In this study, we attempted crystal evaluation of GaN with a newly developed birefringence microscope, which can be used with the same convenience as the conventional optical microscope. GaN is a material having birefringence, so that strain around dislocation can be seen with birefringence microscope as retardation[1]. Therefore, we tried observing commercially available GaN substrate with TDD of 106, 105, 104 cm-2. As results, an useless random contrast image was obtained with the substrate with TDD of 106 cm-2. With the substrate with TDD of 105 cm-2, distinctive contrasts that seem to coincide with the dislocation cores were obtained, but it was an unclear image. On the other hand, with the substrate with TDD of 104 cm-2, we could obtain contrasts that seems to be independent dislocation cores and surrounding strain field. It seems that the strain field of each dislocation overlapped because the distance between dislocations was too close in substrate with TDD of 106 and 105 cm-2. For the substrate with TDD of 104 cm-2, comparison with the X-ray topography image taken at BL8S2 of Aichi SR was carried out, and it was confirmed that the dislocation was exist at the position of the contrast in the image taken by birefringence microscope. However, we also found that there is no contrast at some dislocation positions. This is considered to be caused by that no strain occurs in the planar direction when the threading dislocation is pure screw dislocation. In some of the dislocations, butterfly type contrast which is theoretically expected to appear around edge dislocation was observed. We consider that this novel birefringent method is very useful method to discriminate edge component and its direction of Burgers vector, and also to discriminate screw dislocation in combination with other methods.

UV-C laser diodes (LDs) have not been realized for many years owing to the problems of crystal quality and p-type conductivity control. In our group, AlGaN-based LD structures with low dislocation density were fabricated using AlN single-crystal substrates, and a p-type cladding layer with sufficient hole concentration was realized without impurities doped by distributed polarization doping (DPD). As a result, we have demonstrated pulsed current injection UV-C LDs at room temperature. We have also developed an on-wafer process technology to solve the problems of LDs manufactured by the conventional cleavage method. The key points of this method are the flatness of mirror facets, their angle to the cavity, and the coating of distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) on the mirror facets formed perpendicular to the wafer. The method is a combination of dry etching and TMAH wet etching to selectively expose the m-plane, and the DBR fabrication by atomic layer deposition (ALD) which provides good coverage. The LDs fabricated by the on-wafer method were observed to lase in the UV-C region when a pulsed current was injected similarly to the LDs fabricated by the cleavage method. These results indicate the potential of not only the realization of UV-C LDs but also for the fabrication of devices using high-Al-composition AlGaN with p-type conductivity and optical integrated circuits.