Suppression of unintentional carbon incorporation in AlGaN-based near-ultraviolet light-emitting diode grown on Si

Abstract. AlGaN-based near-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (NUV-LEDs) emitting at 370 nm were grown on Si(111) substrates by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The effect of growth parameters of Si-doped n-type AlGaN thick layer on the material quality and optical performance was studied. Photoluminescence measurements showed that the near-band-edge emission of n-AlGaN was greatly increased and the yellow luminescence (YL) was substantially reduced, when the n-AlGaN layer was grown at a high temperature, a high chamber pressure, and a low growth rate. It was found that the reduced unintentional carbon incorporation in the n-AlGaN layer under those growth conditions was responsible for the improved optical property. The NUV-LED employing the optimized growth parameters of n-AlGaN showed an enhanced light output power and a suppressed YL emission, as well as a better color purity, as compared with the reference one. The results indicate that performance of NUV-LED can be significantly improved by suppressing unintentional carbon incorporation and the defects-related absorption/re-emission in the n-AlGaN.

[1]  Jaime A. Freitas,et al.  On the origin of electrically active defects in AlGaN alloys grown by organometallic vapor phase epitaxy , 1996 .

[2]  Alan Francis Wright,et al.  Role of carbon in GaN , 2002 .

[3]  Feng Zhang,et al.  Conductivity enhancement in AlGaN:Mg by suppressing the incorporation of carbon impurity , 2015 .

[4]  Hui Yang,et al.  High-power AlGaN-based near-ultraviolet light-emitting diodes grown on Si(111) , 2017 .

[5]  Hui Yang,et al.  GaN-on-Si blue/white LEDs: epitaxy, chip, and package , 2016 .

[6]  Zhijue Quan,et al.  Electroluminescence from the sidewall quantum wells in the V-shaped pits of InGaN light emitting diodes , 2014 .

[7]  Michael Kneissl,et al.  III-Nitride Ultraviolet Emitters: Technology and Applications , 2015 .

[8]  Qing Yang,et al.  Contributions from gallium vacancies and carbon-related defects to the “yellow luminescence” in GaN , 2003 .

[9]  Henryk Temkin,et al.  Growth of AlGaN on Si(111) by gas source molecular beam epitaxy , 2000 .

[10]  Anderson Janotti,et al.  Carbon impurities and the yellow luminescence in GaN , 2010 .

[11]  Qizhang Huang,et al.  Determination of twist angle of in-plane mosaic spread of GaN films by high-resolution X-ray diffraction , 2003 .

[12]  Qian Sun,et al.  Strain relaxation and dislocation reduction in AlGaN step‐graded buffer for crack‐free GaN on Si (111) , 2014 .

[13]  Feng Xu,et al.  Different origins of the yellow luminescence in as-grown high-resistance GaN and unintentional-doped GaN films , 2010 .

[14]  M. Weyers,et al.  Advances in group III-nitride-based deep UV light-emitting diode technology , 2010 .

[15]  Baoshun Zhang,et al.  Off-state electrical breakdown of AlGaN/GaN/Ga(Al)N HEMT heterostructure grown on Si(111) , 2016 .

[16]  Yoshihiko Muramoto,et al.  Development and future of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes: UV-LED will replace the UV lamp , 2014, 2015 IEEE Summer Topicals Meeting Series (SUM).

[17]  H. Morkoç,et al.  Luminescence properties of defects in GaN , 2005 .

[18]  Hui Yang,et al.  Room-temperature continuous-wave electrically injected InGaN-based laser directly grown on Si , 2016, Nature Photonics.