We have analyzed photoluminescence (PL) dynamics of GaN/AlGaN and AlInGaN/AlInGaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) with different well and barrier widths. The quantum structures were grown by conventional metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and novel pulsed atomic layer epitaxy. In both types of MQWs a blueshift followed by a redshift of the PL peak position were observed with increasing excitation power, which we attributed to the screening of built-in electric fields and band gap renormalization, respectively. In bulk AlInGaN material or in MQWs with thin well widths the blueshift was not observed. This means that the incorporation of In into AlInGaN material in the amount required to fabricate smooth layers with strong emission at 330-350 nm does not create significant concentration of band-tail states. We have also evaluated the internal field in the MQW structures by comparing the experimental PL data to the simulations based on triangular quantum well model resulting from the polarization fields.

The optical and structural properties of Mn-implanted GaN films have been investigated. The films studied were grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), with Mn implanted in 150 KeV, which can offer many distinguished advantages compared with other doping methods. A new energy band with a minimum at 2.9 eV in the reflectance spectra has been observed. The yellow band emission was greatly decreased according to the result of photoluminescence. The structure analysis revealed that the Mn doped sample has good crystal quality as the pure GaN after annealed. And further discussions on the role of Mn in GaN: Mn films have been presented.

Fluorescence detection in integrated micro-bioanalytical systems requires the selective exclusion of light from the excitation source (typically blue or UV) and transmission of the longer wavelength fluorescence signal. In the present research, the application of (In,Ga)N alloy thin films as optical filters for absorption of blue (470 nm) and transmission of green (530 nm) has been evaluated. Absorption spectra, photoluminescence (PL) and Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS) results are presented for 200-400 nm (In,Ga)N thin films grown by MOCVD on sapphire substrates with 2-4 μm GaN buffer layers. A sigmoidal function was used to model the absorption coefficient of (In,Ga)N as a function of energy, Eg, and the broadening (ΔE) associated with the Urbach tail. Experimental data showed that, as expected, the absorption band edge for (In,Ga)N films broadened with increasing InN mole%. An increase in ΔE of 35 meV was observed when the InN mole% was increased from 10 to 16%. The sigmoidal function model provided a good fit to the experimental data, which allowed the experimental data to be extrapolated to higher InN concentrations. Based on this analysis, it is predicted that a 5 μm thick In0.22Ga0.78N film should transmit 50% of green light (530 nm) and only 3.29 x 1 0-4 of blue light (470 nm). The (In,Ga)N films that have been evaluated range in InN mole% from ~2-16%. The higher InN mole% samples (10-16%) can successfully filter lower wavelengths (e.g., 400 nm). For a filter application, it is also important that photoluminescence be effectively suppressed. In MQW structures, high PL intensity is often obtained by means of InN segregation (InN-rich nanoclusters). But for our evaluation with 200-400 nm (In,Ga)N films, relaxation of coherency strain results in large densities of dislocations, and correspondingly low PL intensity.

AlN single crystals were grown by two different vapor phase processes: by vaporization of metallic Al in a nitrogen atmosphere, or by sublimation of an AlN source. Growth experiments were carried out under quasi-stagnant flow conditions, with typical flow rates of 100 sccm at reactor pressures ranging from 300 to 700 Torr. Growth temperatures ranged from 1800 to 2300°C. In Al vaporization experiments, the crystal shape and fastest growth direction was found to strongly depend on the growth temperature: at relatively low temperatures (1800-1900°C) long needles were grown, temperatures around 1900-2000°C yielded twinned platelets, while c-platelets were formed at temperatures above 2100°C. These c-plates grew at a rate of 5 mm/hr in the c-plane. When using AlN as a source material, growth rates were considerably slower, however, long-term stability of the Al flux was greatly improved. Seeded growth was demonstrated under these conditions. All grown single crystals were transparent and virtually colorless. Analytical results indicated very high crystalline quality and dislocation densities lower than 104cm-3.

The effect of introduction of additional HCl on the surface morphology and structural properties of hydride vapor phase epitaxy grown GaN during growth is investigated, and high quality GaN with smooth surface on sapphire is obtained by adding the additional HCl into the HVPE reactor. The result is attributed to the control of polarity of GaN films during growth. The additional HCl altered the equilibrium at the GaN growth front, and the reversible reaction decreased the nucleation density or growth rate. Further, lower growth rate promote the surface diffusion and the coalescence over (0001) plane. Additional HCl may improve the surface morphology by suppressing the (000-1) polarity growth in the initial stage of the growth.

A growth process route that results in thin film GaN templates with a smooth surface morphology at the optimum temperature of 1020°C has been developed. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) reveals hillocks on films grown above 1020°C. Hillocks resulted from the rotation of heterogeneous steps formed at pure screw or mixed dislocations which terminated on the (0001) surface. Growth of the latter feature was controlled kinetically by temperature through adatom diffusion. The 106 cm-2 density of the hillocks was reduced through growth on thick GaN templates and regions of pendeo-epitaxy (PE) overgrowth with lower pure screw or mixed dislocations. Smooth PE surfaces were obtained at temperatures that reduced the lateral to vertical growth rate but also retarded hillock growth that originated in the stripe regions. The (1120 ) PE sidewall surface was atomically smooth, with a root mean square roughness value of 0.17 nm which was the noise limited resolution of the AFM measurements.

We fabricated pnp GaN bipolar junction transistors and investigated their common-emitter and common-base current-voltage characteristics. The device structures were grown by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy on a sapphire substrate. The base thickness was 0.12 μm and its electron concentration was estimated to be 3 × 1017 cm-3 from the common-emitter current-voltage characteristics and the base conductivity. The common-emitter current-voltage characteristics showed very low leak current. The maximum current gains at room temperature were 50 and 69 from the common-emitter and the common-base current-voltage characteristics, respectively.

Effects of UV/O3 or deuterium plasma treatment, of annealing in air at 550°C, of annealing in N2 at 500°C and various combinations of these treatments on leakage current and resistance in the forward direction of GaN/InGaN multiquantum-well light emitting diodes MQW LEDs were studied. It was shown that the best results are achieved with 5 minutes long UV/O3 treatment. LED structures thus prepared showed effects of strong tunneling in their I-V characteristics. The space charge region was shown to be located in the GaN/InGaN superlattice SL. Passing of moderately high forward current through the structure for several hours enhanced the overall tunneling through the structure and facilitated faster tunneling between the layers in the GaN/InGaN SL.

We fabricated a light-emitting diode (LED) having a nitride-rich GaN1-xPx single quantum well (SQW) structure grown using laser-assisted metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (LA-MOCVD). The peak energy of the electroluminescence (EL) of the LED was 2.88 eV, which is in the vicinity of the energy due to the recombination of the bounding exciton by P atoms, known as an isoelectronic trap in GaN. We observed a blue shift of this peak by increasing the drive current. We also observed extra emission of band-to-band recombination at about 3.4 eV above a drive current of 32 mA, where the external quantum efficiency was already saturated.

The stability to proton radiation of GaN metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) diodes fabricated using the novel gate dielectric Sc2O3 was investigated. The MOS diodes were fabricated by depositing the dielectric with molecular beam epitaxy onto MOCVD-grown GaN on sapphire. The stability of GaN Schottky diodes was also investigated for comparison. Current-voltage (I-V) and capacitance-voltage (C-V), were employed to monitor any change in the electrical characteristics of the diodes. Preliminary testing indicates that the GaN-based diodes are in fact affected by proton irradiation, but only at fairly high doses. Doses equivalent to 10 years in low earth orbit, ~5x109cm-2, produce a decrease in the reverse breakdown field in both Schottky and MOS diodes. However, even after irradiation, the GaN MOS diodes showed twice the reverse breakdown voltage of non-irradiated Schottky diodes. Further, while the Schottky diodes showed reduced forward breakdown voltage, the MOS diodes showed no change in forward breakdown. These results suggest that the oxide/GaN interface is stable and is not being damaged by the radiation. The change in reverse breakdown is most likely due to generation of damage in the GaN resulting in the formation of shallow donors.

The development of a metalorganic chemical vapor deposition growth process for AlxGa1-xN materials with high aluminum composition (x∼0.40-0.60) on sapphire substrates is reported. Room temperature Hall measurements of Si-doped AlGaN epilayers with x∼0.40 show a narrow window for efficient doping with a carrier concentration of ∼1.5x1018 cm-3 and a mobility of ∼35 cm2/V-s obtained under optimum growth conditions. AlxGa1-xN-based solar-blind p-i-n device structures were grown and diode I-V curves were obtained with a high R0A of <2.9×1010 ohm-cm2. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy measurements show a sharp transition between regions of high concentration of Mg (2×1020 cm-3) and Si (1×1019 cm-3) in p-GaN and n-AlGaN layers, respectively.

GaN metal oxide semiconductor diodes were demonstrated utilizing MgO as the gate oxide. MgO was grown at 100°C on MOCVD grown n-GaN in a molecular beam epitaxy system using a Mg elemental source and an electron cyclotron resonance oxygen plasma. H3PO4 based wet-chemical etchant was used to remove MgO to expose the underlying n-GaN for ohmic metal deposition. Electron deposited Ti/Al/Pt/Au and Pt/Au were utilized as ohmic and gate metallization, respectively. An interface trap density of low-to-mid 1011 eV-1cm-2was obtained from temperature conductance-voltage measurements. Terman method was also used to estimate the interface trap density and a slight lower number was obtained as compared to the conductance method. Results from elevated temperature (up to 300°C) conductance measurements showed an interface state density roughly three times higher(6x1011 eV–1 cm-2 ) than at 25°C.

We analyzed the photoluminescence (PL) spectra of undoped GaN films grown by molecular beam epitaxy on sapphire substrates. While the PL spectra from high-quality samples contain free and bound exciton peaks only, the spectra from some samples involve sharp unidentified peaks in the energy range of 3.0 – 3.45 eV, specifically at 3.21, 3.32, 3.36, and 3.42 eV. We attribute these peaks to excitons bound to defects because of the linear and sometimes superlinear increase in their intensity with excitation density without saturation up to 100 W/cm2. With increasing temperature these peaks quench in a well-known fashion similar to that for excitons. In order to relate the observed peaks to the structural defects, we etched selected samples in hot H3PO4 acid or, alternatively, with photo-electrochemical (PEC) etching at room temperature in the presence of UV-illumination in a dilute KOH solution. In the former case the dislocations were etched leaving etched pits on the surface, while in the latter case the dislocations remained unetched due to a deficit of photogenerated holes at dislocation sites. We found that the 3.42 eV peak disappeared after both hot wet and PEC etching suggesting that the associated defect is at the GaN surface. Peaks at 3.21 and 3.36 eV could be enhanced greatly by PEC etching, which were correlated to bulk dislocations.

Optical absorption measurements were used to investigate deep defects in proton irradiated doped and undoped AlGaN thin films grown on sapphire substrates. Several samples were proton irradiated with energies ranging between 10 keV and 1 MeV. In certain samples, multiple-energy ion implantation was found necessary to produce a defect, which is responsible for the absorption band observed at 4.61 eV with a shoulder at around 4.10 eV in Al0.6Ga0.4N. Furnace thermal annealing of the irradiated samples show that this absorption band starts to anneal out at temperature as low as 200 oC. A combined isochronal and isothermal annealing in the temperature range of 200- 350°C shows that the activation energy (enthalpy associated with the migration process) of this defect is approximately 0.41 eV. This leads us to conclude that this absorption band is due to a N-vacancy related defect. It is observed that the peak position energy of the absorption band due to this defect is shifted depending on the Al mole fraction in good agreement with the theoretical predictions.

We demonstrate high-quality epitaxial AlN films on C-plane sapphire as a new buffer layer technique for the growth of high-quality GaN. The obtained GaN films were atomically flat and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of the X-ray rocking curve (XRC) were 120arcsec and 510arcsec for (0004) and (10-10), respectively. XRC-FWHM values of the underlying AlN film were 90arcsec and 1800arcsec for (0004) and (10-10), respectively. The XRC results of the GaN indicated that tilted mosaicity of the GaN was much smaller than that of conventional GaN and that small tilted mosaicity coincided with small twisted mosaicity. It was characteristic that the twisted mosaicity drastically reduced from the AlN to the GaN. According to TEM results, it was clarified that the high-quality AlN layer had an effect in reducing the amount of screw-type threading dislocations and that the GaN/AlN interface played an important role in reducing the amount of edge-type dislocations.

Amorphous GaN films have been deposited onto various substrates by ion-assisted deposition. The films were deposited at room temperature using nitrogen ion energies in the range 40-900 eV. Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and nuclear reaction analysis show that the Ga:N atomic ratio is approximately one for films grown with ion energy near 500 eV; these films have the highest transparency. Films grown with ion energies below 300 eV are Ga rich, and show reduced transparency across the visible. Raman spectroscopy, x-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscopy confirm the amorphous nature of the films. Annealing studies on a-GaN establish that the films begin to crystallise at a temperature of about 700 C. To investigate the local bonding environment of the Ga or N atoms, we have measured the extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) of the transparent GaN films. The EXAFS results indicate that the films are dominated by heteropolar tetrahedral bonding, with a low density of homopolar bonds.

Properties of n-GaN/p-SiC and n-AlGaN/p-SiC heterojunctions prepared by HVPE on 4H SiC substrates were studied by means of C-V, C/G-T, C-f, I-V and DLTS. It is shown, in agreement with earlier publications, that the GaN/p-SiC HJ is staggered type II with ΔEc=-0.4 eV andΔEv=0.6 eV. Whenchanging GaN for AlGaN with Al mole fraction of x=0.25-0.3 the band alignment becomes normal type I with ΔEc=0.2 eV andΔEv=0.6 eV. I-V characteristics of both heterojunctions bear evidence of strong tunneling via defect states, particularly centers with activation energy of 1.25 eV for GaN/4H SiC HJ. The tunneling was found to be more pronounced in the AlGaN/SiC HJs even though these HJs showed no evidence of formation of dark line defects at the interface, in contrast to GaN/SiC. DLTS measurements on both types of HJs revealed the presence of broad bands whose behavior is indicative of these bands being related to continuous states in the gap, most likely near the nitride/carbide interface.

The highest mobility nitrides ever grown were indium nitride polycrystalline thin films. The original reactive ion sputtering unit used to produce those films is still in existence and has been substantially upgraded. In this paper we describe some of the parameters that are important for high purity indium nitride growth, while providing the most recent results for films grown with the upgraded system. A long lag time (greater than 100 hours of growth time) has been observed before obtaining stable material properties for a given set of growth conditions.

This paper presents the correlation between overall crystal mosaicities and dislocation behaviors of high-quality AlN epitaxial films grown on a C-plane sapphire substrate using a low-pressure metal organic vapor phase epitaxy (LP-MOVPE) method. Typical full width at half maximum (FWHM) values of x-ray rocking curves (XRC) for (0002) and (10-10) of the AlN are 80arcsec and 1800arcsec, respectively. From transmission electron microscopy (TEM) observations, edge-type dislocations thread the AlN layer, however, almost all screw-type dislocations disappear at an early AlN growth stage. The dislocation density of the AlN films in its surface region is as low as approximately 1x1010 cm-2. The distribution of the dislocations is considered to be caused by a large twisted mosaicity and a very small tilted mosaicity.

The present paper gives an overview over different sensor applications of GaN thin films and AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. The response of Pt-GaN Schottky diodes towards hydrogen and hydrogen containing gases is analysed and their gas sensitivity is characterized from room temperature up to 600°C. In addition, the sheet carrier density of a two dimensional electron gas confined at the heterointerface in AlGaN/GaN high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) is shown to be significantly influenced by changes in the electronic properties of the device surface. This effect is successfully exploited for the realization of ion detectors and sensors for fluid monitoring based on AlGaN/GaN HEMTs with non-metalized gate areas. Promising possibilities of fabricating monolithically integrated sensor devices for wireless signal transmission are demonstrated by the realization of SAW devices on epitaxial AlN-films.