Two-dimensional electron gas transport properties have been investigated in nitride double-heterostructures. A striking effect has been observed that the two-dimensional electron gas mobility has been drastically enhanced in the AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN doubleheterostructure, compared with that in the conventional AlGaN/GaN singleheterostructure. The observed mobility enhancement has been shown to be mainly due to the enhanced polarization-induced electron confinement in the double-heterostructure, and additionally due to the improvement of the interface roughness in the structure. Device operation of an AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN double-heterostructure field effect transistor has been demonstrated: a maximum transconductance of 180 mS/mm has been obtained for a 0.4 mm-gate-length device. In the double-heterostructure using InGaN channel, the increased capacity for the two-dimensional electron gas has been observed. The AlGaN/(In)GaN/AlGaN double-heterostructures are effective for improving the electron transport properties.

Deep levels studies on a set of n-GaN films grown by MOCVD and HVPE reveal the presence of electron traps with levels near Ec-0.25 eV, Ec-0.55 eV, Ec-0.8 eV, Ec-1 eV, hole traps with levels near Ev+0.9 eV and a band of relatively shallow states in the lower half of the bandgap. The total density of these latter states was estimated to be some 1016 cm−3 and they were tentatively associated with dislocations in GaN based on their high concentration and band-like character. None of the electron or hole traps could be unambiguously related with strong changes of diffusion lengths of minority carriers in various samples. It is proposed that such changes occur due to different surface recombination velocities. An important role of Ec-0.55 eV traps in persistent photoconductivity phenomena in n-GaN has been demonstrated.

Changes of properties of green LEDs based on InxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-y/GaN heterostructures were studied during 150÷200 hours at currents J = 30÷80 mA. The radiation intensity at low currents (0.1÷1 mA) is quite sensitive to such an aging, it falls down 10÷100 times. Quantum efficiency and spectral parameters at normal currents (J ≈ 10 mA) change non-monotonically during aging, some degradation is observed after 168 hours. The degradation is observed also after a short (< 1 min) period of reverse current. These phenomena are discussed in terms of under threshold defect's formation and their migration in the space charge region of p-n-heterojunction. Potential fluctuations in the space charge region are quite sensitive to this process.

Thin layers of InGaN were grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and characterized with atomic force microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. InGaN deposited on GaN exhibits a Stranski-Krastanov growth mode, including 2D wetting layer and 3D self-assembled quantum dots. Besides, we observed that the formed InGaN nano-scale dots have a trapezoidal shape with a {1-102} facet with respect to (0002) surface. Visible spectral range from UV to green was easily obtained by changing InGaN quantum well thickness up to 2.3 nm.

Mg-doped superlattices consisting of uniformly doped AlxGa1−xN and GaN layers are analyzed by Hall-effect measurements. Acceptor activation energies of 70 meV and 58 meV are obtained for superlattice structures with an Al mole fraction of x = 0.10 and 0.20 in the barrier layers, respectively. These energies are significantly lower than the activation energy measured for Mg-doped GaN thin films. At room temperature, the doped superlattices have free hole concentrations of 2 × 1018 cm−3 and 4 × 1018 cm−3 for x = 0.10 and 0.20, respectively. The increase in hole concentration with Al content of the superlattice is consistent with theory. The room temperature conductivity measured for the superlattice structures are 0.27 S/cm and 0.64 S/cm for an Al mole fraction of x = 0.10 and 0.20, respectively.

Defects can be conveniently categorized into three types: point, line, and areal. In GaN, the important point defects are vacancies and interstitials; the line defects are threading dislocations; and the areal defects are stacking faults. We have used electron irradiation to produce point defects, and temperature-dependent Hall-effect (TDH) and deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) measurements to study them. The TDH investigation has identified two point defects, an 0.06-eV donor and a deep acceptor, thought to be the N vacancy and interstitial, respectively. The DLTS study has found two point-defect electron traps, at 0.06 eV and 0.9 eV, respectively; the 0.06-eV trap actually has two components, with different capture kinetics. With respect to line defects, the DLTS spectrum in as-grown GaN includes an 0.45-eV electron trap, which has the characteristics of a dislocation, and the TDH measurements show that threading-edge dislocations are acceptor-like in n-type GaN. Finally, in samples grown by the hydride vapor phase technique, TDH measurements indicate a strongly n-type region at the GaN/Al2O3 interface, which may be associated with stacking faults. All of the defects discussed above can have an influence on the dc and/or ac conductivity of GaN.

We comprehensively studied InGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) using a variety of methods of optical spectroscopy, such as cathodoluminescence microscopy (CL), time-integrated and time-resolved photoluminescence. To correlate the fluctuations in emission wavelength with values for the optical amplification we performed gain measurements in edge-stripe geometry. The lateral homogeneity can be drastically improved using a template of GaN grown on the sapphire substrate by metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). Gain values up to 62 cm-1 were found in samples with low indium fluctuations, which is comparable to values for high-quality InGaN/GaN heterostructures grown by MOVPE.

The N-side of GaN single crystals with off-angle orientations of 0°, 2°, and 4° towards the [1010] direction was used as a substrate for homo-epitaxial MOCVD growth. The highest misorientation resulted in a reduction of the density of grown hillocks by almost two orders of magnitude as compared with homo-epitaxial films grown on the exact (0001) surface. The features still found on the 4° misoriented sample after growth can be explained by a model involving the interaction of steps, introduced by the misorientation and the hexagonal hillocks during the growth process.

The defect levels associated with Mg impurity in p-type GaN films were systematically investigated in terms of doping concentration by photocurrent spectroscopy. Mg-doped GaN samples were grown on sapphire substrate by metal organic chemical vapor deposition and annealed in nitrogen atmosphere at 850 for 10 minutes. At room temperature, PC spectra showed two peaks at 3.31 and 3.15 eV associated with acceptor levels formed at 300 and 142 meV above valence band in as grown samples. But, after the thermal annealing, PC spectra exhibited various additional peaks depending on the Mg concentration. In the GaN samples with Mg concentration around 6 7 1017 cm−3, we have observed PC peaks related to Mg at 3.31 as well as 3.02 eV and carbon acceptor at 3.17 eV. For moderately Mg doped GaN samples, i.e., the hole concentration p=3 4 1017 cm−3, additional peak was observed at around 0.9 eV which can be attributed to defects related to Ga vacancy. For relatively low Mg doped samples whose hole concentrations are 1 2 1017 cm−3, additional broad peak was observed at around 1.3 eV. This peak may be related to the yellow band luminescence. As the Mg concentration is increased, the concentration of Ga vacancies can be reduced because Mg occupies the substitutional site of Ga in GaN lattice. When the hole concentration is above 6 7 1017 cm−3, the yellow luminescence and Ga vacancy related peaks disappeared completely.

A new ohmic contact scheme for gallium nitride is presented. The use of Nitride-forming metal Over Gallide-forming metal, “NOG”, can modify the thermodynamic activity of N and Ga near the interface. This in turn can modify the near-surface point defect concentrations, particularly the vacancies of Ga and N. The principle of this contact scheme was shown to be consistent with results from Ni/Au, Ni/Zn-Au, Ta/Ti, and Ni/Mg/Ni/Si contacts. In the present study, the “NOG” scheme was used to design Ni/Ti/Au and Ni/Al/Au metallization, and addition of Ti and Al nitride-forming metals to the Ni gallide-forming metal led to lower but still high contact resistance. Ti was shown to be better than Al as the nitride-forming metal based on the decrease of resistance in as deposited contacts. Compared to Ni/Au, four times more current was measured in Ni/Ti/Au contacts to p-GaN after anneal at 300°C for 5min. However the addition of the Ti nitride-forming metal led to lower stability at 500°C.

Excimer laser ablation rates of Si (111) and AlN films grown on Si (111) and r-plane sapphire substrates were determined. Linear dependence of ablation rate of Si (111) substrate, sapphire and AlN thin films were observed. Excimer laser micromachining of the AlN thin films on silicon (111) and SiC substrates were micromachined to fabricate a waveguide structure and a pixilated structure. This technique resulted in clean precise machining of AlN with high aspect ratios and straight walls.

The hexagonal domain suppression-effects in cubic-GaNAs grown by metalorganic chemical-vapor deposition (MOCVD) is reported. A thin buffer layer (20 nm) was first grown on a substrate at 853 K using trimethylgallium and dimethylhydrazine (DMHy), and GaNAs samples were grown at different AsH3 flow rates (0 ∼ 450 µmol/min) at 1193 K. As a result, three types of surface morphologies were obtained: the first was a smooth surface (AsH3 = 0 µmol/min); the second was a mirrorlike surface having small and isotropic grains (AsH3 : 45 ∼ 225 µmol/min ); and the third involved threedimensional surface morphologies (above 450 µmol/min of AsH3 flow rate). Furthermore, it was confirmed using X-ray diffraction that the mixing ratio of hexagonal GaNAs in cubic GaNAs decreased with an increase of the AsH3 flow rate. We could obtain GaNAs having a cubic component of above 85% at AsH3 flow rates above 20 µmol/min. Therefore, the MOCVD growth method using AsH3 and DMHy was mostly effective for suppressing hexagonal GaNAs. It was observed that the photoluminescence intensity of GaNAs was decreased with increase of arsine flow rate.

Large (up to 10mm diameter) aluminum nitride (AlN) boules have been grown by the sublimation-recondensation method to study the preparation of high-quality single crystal substrates. The growth mechanism of the boules has been studied using AFM. It has been determined that large single crystal grains in those boules grow with a density of screw dislocations below 5×104 cm−3 while edge dislocations are at lower density (none were observed). High-quality AlN single crystal substrates for epitaxial growth have been prepared and characterized using Chemical Mechanical Polishing (CMP) and AFM imaging, respectively. Also, the differential etching effect of KOH solutions on the N and Al-terminated faces of AlN on vicinal c-faces has been investigated. In order to identify the N or Al-terminated face, convergent beam electron diffraction has been used.

GaN-based short wavelength laser diodes are the most promising key device for a digital versatile disk. We have been improving the important points of the laser diodes in terms of optical guiding layers, mirror facets. The continuous wave laser irradiation at room temperature could be achieved successfully by reducing the threshold current to 60 mA (4 kA/cm2). We have tried to apply the multi low temperature buffer layers to the laser diodes for the first time to reduce the crystal defects.

Rutherford backscattering and channeling spectrometry (RBS), photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) have been used to investigate macroscopic and microscopic segregation in MOCVD grown InGaN layers. The PL peak energy and In content (measured by RBS) were mapped at a large numberof distinct points on the samples. An indium concentration of 40%, the highest measured in this work, corresponds to a PL peak of 710 nm, strongly suggesting that the lightemitting regions of the sample are very indium-rich compared to the average measured by RBS. Cross-sectional TEM observations show distinctive layering of the InGaN films. The TEM study further reveals that these layers consist of amorphous pyramidal contrast features with sizes of order 10 nm. The composition of these specific contrast features is shown to be In-rich compared to the nitride matrix.

Electroluminescence (EL) is the most significant measure for light-emitting diodes since it probes the most relevant properties of the fully processed device during operation. In addition to the information gained by conventional spectrally resolved EL, scanning micro-EL provides spatially resolved information. The devices under investigation are InGaN/GaN-LEDs with single peak band-band emission at about 400 nm grown by MOVPE on sapphire substrates.

The μ-EL-characterization is performed as a function of injection current densities and the emission is investigated from the epitaxial layer as well as from substrate side. Spatially resolved wavelength images reveal emission peaks between 406 nm and 417 nm, corresponding either to In fluctuations of 1%–1.5% or local fluctuations of piezo electric fields. Beside the information on the emission wavelength fluctuations ν-EL is used to determine the temperature distribution in the LEDs and to investigate transparent contacts.

High-quality GaN was grown using gas-source molecular-beam epitaxy (GSMBE). The mobility of undoped GaN was 350 cm2/Vsec and the carrier concentration was 6×1016 cm−3 at room temperature. A GaN metal semiconductor field-effect transistor (MESFET) and an n-p-n GaN bipolar junction transistor (BJT) were fabricated for hightemperature operation. The high-temperature reliability of the GaN MESFET was also investigated. That is, the lifetime of the FET at 673 K was examined by continuous current injection at 673 K. We confirmed that the FET performance did not change at 673 K for over 1010 h. The aging performance of the BJT at 573 K was examined during continuous current injection at 573 K for over 850 h. The BJT performance did not change at 573 K. The current gain was about 10. No degradation of the metalsemiconductor interface was observed by secondary ion-mass spectrometry (SIMS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was also confirmed by using Si-ion implantation that the contact resistivity of the GaN surface and electrode materials could be lowered to 7×10-6 ohmcm2.

We demonstrate 230-250 nm efficient ultraviolet (UV) photoluminescence (PL) from AlN(AlGaN)/AlGaN multi-quantum-wells (MQWs) fabricated by metalorganic vapor-phase-epitaxy (MOVPE). Firstly, we show the PL properties of high Al content AlGaN bulk (Al content: 85-95%) emitting from near band-edge. We systematically investigated the PL properties of AlGaN-MQWs consisting of wide bandgap AlGaN (Al content: 53-100%) barrier. We obtained efficient PL emission of 234 and 245 nm from AlN/Al0.18Ga0.82N and Al0.8Ga0.2N/Al0.18Ga0.82N MQWs, respectively, at 77 K. The optimum value of well thickness was approximately 1.5 nm. The emission from the AlGaN MQWs were several tens of times stronger than that of bulk AlGaN. We found that the most efficient PL is obtained at around 240 nm from AlGaN MQWs with Al0.8Ga0.2N barriers. Also, we found that the PL from AlGaN MQW is as efficient as that of InGaN QWs at 77 K.

The pump-probe technique has been used to perform room temperature studies of the photoinduced changes in the reflectivity ΔR associated with exciton and carrier dynamics in GaN prepared by lateral epitaxial overgrowth. For resonant excitation of cold excitons, the ΔR decay possesses a 720 ps component attributed to the free exciton lifetime in this high quality material. For electrons with small excess energy (< 50 meV), the strong increase in the ΔR decay rate with decreasing excitation density suggests that screening of the Coulomb interaction may play an important role in the processes of carrier relaxation and exciton formation. The faster decay times at a given carrier density observed for hot (> 100 meV) electron relaxation are attributed to electron-hole scattering in conjunction with the screened electron-LO phonon interaction.

High quality Al0.25Ga0.75N/GaN modulation-doped heterojunction field-effect transistor (MOD-HFET) structures grown on sapphire substrates with high sheet carrier density and mobility products (nsμ > 1016/Vs at room temperature) have been grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The optimized structures were achieved by varying structural parameters, including the AlGaN spacer layer thickness, the Si-doped AlGaN barrier layer thickness, the Si-doping concentration, and the growth pressure. In these structures, the persistent photoconductivity (PPC) effect associated with the two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) system was invariantly observed. As a consequence, the characteristic parameters of the 2DEG were sensitive to light and the sensitivity was associated with permanent photoinduced increases in the 2DEG carrier mobility (μ) and sheet carrier density (ns). However, we observed that the magnitude of the PPC and hence the photoinduced instability associated with these heterostructures were a strong function of only one parameter, the product of ns and μ, which is the most important parameter for the HFET device design. For a fixed excitation photon dose, the ratio of the low temperature PPC to the dark conductivity level was observed to decrease from 200% to 3% as the nsμ (300 K) product was increased from 0.048 × 1016/Vs to 1.4 ‘times; 1016/Vs. Based on our studies, we suggest that the magnitude of the low temperature PPC can be used as a sensitive probe for monitoring the electronic quality of the AlGaN/GaN HFET structures.