Intersubband transitions in nonpolar GaN/Al(Ga)N heterostructures in the short- and mid-wavelength infrared regions

This paper assesses nonpolar m- and a-plane GaN/Al(Ga)N multi-quantum-wells grown on bulk GaN for intersubband optoelectronics in the short- and mid-wavelength infrared ranges. The characterization results are compared to those for reference samples grown on the polar c-plane, and are verified by self-consistent Schrodinger-Poisson calculations. The best results in terms of mosaicity, surface roughness, photoluminescence linewidth and intensity, as well as intersubband absorption are obtained from m-plane structures, which display room-temperature intersubband absorption in the range from 1.5 to 2.9 μm. Based on these results, a series of m-plane GaN/AlGaN multi-quantum-wells were designed to determine the accessible spectral range in the mid-infrared. These samples exhibit tunable room-temperature intersubband absorption from 4.0 to 5.8 μm, the long-wavelength limit being set by the absorption associated with the second order of the Reststrahlen band in the GaN substrates.

[1]  Eva Monroy,et al.  Pseudo-square AlGaN/GaN quantum wells for terahertz absorption , 2014 .

[2]  Jerry R. Meyer,et al.  Band parameters for nitrogen-containing semiconductors , 2003 .

[3]  D. Schaadt,et al.  Growth of A-plane GaN on (0 1 0) LiGaO2 by plasma-assisted MBE , 2010 .

[4]  Eva Monroy,et al.  III-nitride semiconductors for intersubband optoelectronics: a review , 2013 .

[5]  Alan Francis Wright,et al.  Elastic properties of zinc-blende and wurtzite AlN, GaN, and InN , 1997 .

[6]  F. Julien,et al.  Terahertz intersubband absorption in GaN/AlGaN step quantum wells , 2010 .

[7]  Esther Baumann,et al.  GaN/AlN short-period superlattices for intersubband optoelectronics: A systematic study of their epitaxial growth, design, and performance , 2008 .

[8]  S. Einfeldt,et al.  Strain relaxation in AlGaN under tensile plane stress , 2000 .

[9]  James S. Speck,et al.  Anisotropy of tensile stresses and cracking in nonbasal plane AlxGa1−xN/GaN heterostructures , 2010 .

[10]  Enrico Bellotti,et al.  Monte Carlo simulation of terahertz quantum cascade laser structures based on wide-bandgap semiconductors , 2009 .

[11]  J. Misiewicz,et al.  Transparency of GaN substrates in the mid‐infrared spectral range , 2012 .

[12]  E. Monroy,et al.  Intersubband spectroscopy probing higher order interminiband transitions in AlN-GaN-based superlattices , 2011 .

[13]  Y. Arakawa,et al.  Observation of mid-infrared intersubband absorption in non-polar m-plane AlGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells , 2014 .

[14]  P. Vogl,et al.  nextnano: General Purpose 3-D Simulations , 2007, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

[15]  Zahia Bougrioua,et al.  Epitaxial orientation of III-nitrides grown on R-plane sapphire by metal-organic-vapor-phase epitaxy , 2006 .

[16]  Wei Zhang,et al.  Far-infrared intersubband photodetectors based on double-step III-nitride quantum wells , 2012 .

[17]  Yu-Lin Hsiao,et al.  Nonpolar a-plane GaN grown on r-plane sapphire using multilayer AlN buffer by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition , 2011 .

[18]  P. Vennégués,et al.  Influence of Stacking Sequences and Lattice Parameter Differences on the Microstructure of Nonpolar AlN Films Grown on (1120) 6H-SiC by Plasma-Assisted Molecular Beam Epitaxy , 2010 .

[19]  Maria Tchernycheva,et al.  Midinfrared intersubband absorption in GaN/AlGaN superlattices on Si(111) templates , 2009 .

[20]  Oliver Brandt,et al.  Ga adsorption and desorption kinetics on M-plane GaN , 2004 .

[21]  F. Julien,et al.  GaN/AlGaN intersubband optoelectronic devices , 2009 .

[22]  Sven Einfeldt,et al.  Strain relaxation in AlGaN/GaN superlattices grown on GaN , 2001 .

[23]  Esther Baumann,et al.  Intersubband Transition-Based Processes and Devices in AlN/GaN-Based Heterostructures , 2010, Proceedings of the IEEE.

[24]  Detlef Hommel,et al.  Temperature dependence of the thermal expansion of AlN , 2009 .

[25]  M. Stroscio,et al.  Photon absorption in the Restrahlen band of thin films of GaN and AlN: Two phonon effects , 2005 .

[26]  James S. Speck,et al.  Control of GaN surface morphologies using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy , 2000 .

[27]  H. Yoshida,et al.  Integration of GaN/AlN all-optical switch with SiN/AlN waveguide utilizing spot-size conversion. , 2009, Optics express.

[28]  M. J. Manfra,et al.  Terahertz intersubband absorption in non-polar m-plane AlGaN/GaN quantum wells , 2014, 1406.1772.

[29]  Norio Iizuka,et al.  Feasibility Study on Ultrafast Nonlinear Optical Properties of 1.55-µ m Intersubband Transition in AlGaN/GaN Quantum Wells , 1997 .

[30]  E. Monroy,et al.  Terahertz absorbing AlGaN/GaN multi-quantum-wells: Demonstration of a robust 4-layer design , 2013 .

[31]  J. Brault,et al.  Gallium adsorption on (0001) GaN surfaces , 2003 .

[32]  Din Ping Tsai,et al.  Spoof plasmon waveguide enabled ultrathin room temperature THz GaN quantum cascade laser: a feasibility study. , 2013, Optics express.

[33]  J. Speck,et al.  Nonpolar and Semipolar Group III Nitride-Based Materials , 2009 .

[34]  Shuji Nakamura,et al.  Non-polar m-plane intersubband based InGaN/(Al)GaN quantum well infrared photodetectors , 2013 .

[35]  F. Julien,et al.  Systematic study of near-infrared intersubband absorption of polar and semipolar GaN/AlN quantum wells , 2013 .

[36]  Masashi Kubota,et al.  Pure Blue Laser Diodes Based on Nonpolar m-Plane Gallium Nitride with InGaN Waveguiding Layers , 2007 .

[37]  S. Sakai,et al.  Infrared properties of bulk GaN , 1999 .