The influence of dry etching damage on the internal quantum efficiency of InGaN/GaN nanorod multiple quantum wells (MQWs) is studied.The samples were etched by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching via a selfassembled nickel nanomask,and examined by room-temperature photoluminescence measurement.The key parameters in the etching process are rf power and ICP power.The internal quantum efficiency of nanorod MQWs shows a 5.6 times decrease substantially with the rf power increasing from 3W to 100W.However,it is slightly influenced by the ICP power,which shows 30% variation over a wide ICP power range between 30W and 600W.Under the optimized etching condition,the internal quantum efficiency of nanorod MQWs can be 40% that of the as-grown MQW sample,and the external quantum efficiency of nanorod MQWs can be about 4 times that of the as-grown one.
A series of experiments were conducted to systematically study the effects of etching conditions on GaN by a con-venient photo-assisted chemical （PAC） etching method. The solution concentration has an evident influence on the surface morphology of GaN and the optimal solution concentrations for GaN hexagonal pyramids have been identified. GaN with hexagonal pyramids have higher crystal quality and tensile strain relaxation compared with as-grown GaN. A detailed anal- ysis about evolution of the size, density and optical property of GaN hexagonal pyramids is described as a function of light intensity. The intensity of photoluminescence spectra of GaN etched with hexagonal pyramids significantly increases compared to that of as-grown GaN due to multiple scattering events, high quality GaN with pyramids and the Bragg effect.
The quest for higher modulation speed and lower energy consumption has inevitably promoted the rapid development of semiconductor-based solid lighting devices in recent years. GaN-based light-emitting diodes （LEDs） have emerged as promising candidates for achieving high efficiency and high intensity, and have received increasing attention among many researchers in this field. In this paper, we use a self-assembled array-patterned mask to fabricate InGaN/GaN multi- quantum well （MQW） LEDs with the intention of enhancing the light-emitting efficiency. By utilizing inductively coupled plasma etching with a self-assembled Ni cluster as the mask, nanopillar arrays are formed on the surface of the InGaN/GaN MQWs. We then observe the structure of the nanopillars and find that the V-defects on the surface of the conventional structure and the negative effects of threading dislocation are effectively reduced. Simultaneously, we make a comparison of the photoluminescence （PL） spectrum between the conventional structure and the nanopillar arrays, achieved under an experimental set-up with an excitation wavelength of 325 mm. The analysis demonstrates that MQW-LEDs with nanopillar arrays achieve a PL intensity 2.7 times that of conventional LEDs. In response to the PL spectrum, some reasons are proposed for the enhancement in the light-emitting efficiency as follows： 1） the improvement in crystal quality, namely the reduction in V-defects; 2） the roughened surface effect on the expansion of the critical angle and the attenuated total reflection; and 3） the enhancement of the light-extraction efficiency due to forward scattering by surface plasmon polariton modes in Ni particles deposited above the p-type GaN layer at the top of the nanopillars.
Effect of the V/III ratio during buffer layer growth on the yellow and blue luminescence in undoped GaN epilayer has been studied by means of photoluminescence spectroscopy and high resolution X-ray diffraction.It is found that the densities of screw and edge threading dislocations increase with the V/III ratio of the buffer layer,and the intensities of the yellow luminescence(YL) and blue luminescence(BL) emissions also increase dramatically.However,the density ratio of the edge threading dislocation to the screw threading dislocation remains invariant,as well as the intensity ratio of YL emission to BL emission.It can be concluded from these phenomena that the edge threading dislocation and screw threading dislocation can enhance the YL and BL emissions,respectively.
Wide spectral white light emitting diodes have been designed and grown on a sapphire substrate by using a metal-organic chemical vapor deposition system. Three quantum wells with blue-light-emitting, green-light-emitting and red-light-emitting structures were grown according to the design. The surface morphology of the film was observed by using atomic force microscopy. The films were characterized by their photoluminescence measurements. X-ray diffraction t9/2/9 scan spectroscopy was carried out on the multi-quantum wells. The secondary fringes of the symmetric ω/2θ X-ray diffraction scan peaks indicate that the thicknesses and the alloy compositions of the individual quantum wells are repeatable throughout the active region. The room temperature photoluminescence spectra of the structures indicate that the white light emission of the multi-quantum wells is obtained. The light spectrum covers 400 700 nm, which is almost the whole visible light spectrum.
A significant enhancement in solar hydrogen generation efficiency has been achieved by inductive coupled etching （ICP） surface roughening treatment using nano-sized nickel mask. As much as 7 times improvement of photocurrent is demonstrated in comparison with a planar one fabricated from the same parent wafer. Under identical illumination conditions in HBr solution, the incident photon conversion efficiency （IPCE） shows an enhancement with a factor of 3, which even exceed 54% at 400 nm wavelength. We believe the enhancement is attributed to several facts including improvement in absorption, reacting area, carder localization and carrier lifetime.
Roughened surfaces of light-emitting diodes(LEDs)provide substantial improvement in light extraction efficiency.By preparing the self-assemble nanoporous Ni template through rapid annealing of a thin Ni film,followed by a low damage dry etching process,a p-side-up LED with a roughened surface has been fabricated.Compared to a conventional LED with plane surface,the light output of LEDs with nanoporous p-GaN surface increases up to 71%and 36%at applied currents of 1 mA and 20 mA,respectively.Meanwhile,the electrical characteristics are not degraded obviously after surface roughening.
The practical design of GaN-based Schottky barrier diodes （SBDs） incorporating a field plate （FP） structure necessitates an understanding of their working mechanism and optimization criteria. In this work, the influences of the parameters of FPs upon breakdown of the diode are investigated in detail and the design rules of FP structures for GaN-based SBDs are presented for a wide scale of material and device parameters. By comparing three representative dielectric materials （SiO2, Si3N4 and Al2O3） selected for fabricating FPs, it is found that the product of dielectric permittivity and critical field strength of a dielectric material could be used as an index to predict its potential performance for FP applications.
We present the theoretical results of the electronic band structure of wurtzite GaN films under biaxial strains in the （11^-22）-plane. The calculations are performed by the k.p perturbation theory approach through using the effectivemass Hamiltonian for an arbitrary direction. The results show that the transition energies decrease with the biaxial strains changing from -0.5% to 0.5%. For films of （11^-22）-plane, the strains are expected to be anisotropic in the growth plane. Such anisotropic strains give rise to valence band mixing which results in dramatic change in optical polarisation property. The strain can also result in optical polarisation switching phenomena. Finally, we discuss the applications of these properties to the （1132） plane GaN-based light-emitting diode and lase diode.
