Growth of high-quality InGaN/GaN LED structures on (111) Si substrates with internal quantum efficiency exceeding 50%

Abstract: GaN-based light-emitting-diodes (LEDs) on (111) Si substrates with internal quantum efficiency (IQE) exceeding 50% have been successfully grown by metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). 3.5μm thick crack-free GaN epitaxial layers were grown on the Si substrates by the re-growth method on patterned templates. Series of step-graded Al x Ga1−x N epitaxial layers were used as the buffer layers to compensate thermal tensile stresses produced during the post-growth cooling process as well as to reduce the density of threading dislocations (TDs) generated due to the lattice mismatches between III-nitride layers and the silicon substrates. The light-emitting region consisted of 1.8μm thick n-GaN, 3 periods of InGaN/GaN superlattice, InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) designed for a peak wavelength of about 455nm, an electron blocking layer (EBL), and p-GaN. The full-widths at half-maximum (FWHM) of (0002) and (10−12) ω-rocking curves of the GaN epitaxial layers were 410 and 560arcsec, respectively. Cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) investigation revealed that the propagation of the threading dislocations was mostly limited to the interface between the last Al x Ga1−x N buffer and n-GaN layers. The density of the threading dislocations induced pits of n-GaN, as estimated by atomic force microscopy (AFM), was about 5.5×108 cm−2. Temperature dependent photoluminescence (PL) measurements with a relative intensity integration method were carried out to estimate the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of the light-emitting structures grown on Si, which reached up to 55%. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]