Significant contribution from impurity-band transport to the room temperature conductivity of silicon-doped AlGaN

Silicon-doped n-type (0 0 0 1) AlGaN materials with 60% and 85% AlN content were studied close to the doping condition that gives the lowest resistivity (Si/III ratios in the ranges 2.8–34  ×  10−5 and 1.3–6.6  ×  10−5, respectively). Temperature-dependent conductivity and Hall-effect measurements showed that, apart from the diffusion-like transport in the conduction band, a significant amount of the conductivity was due to phonon-assisted hopping among localized states in the impurity band, which became almost completely degenerate in the most doped sample of the Al0.6Ga0.4N series. In the doping range explored, impurity-band transport was not only dominant at low temperature, but also significant at room-temperature, with contributions to the total conductivity up to 46% for the most conductive sample. We show that, as a consequence of this fact, the measurements of Hall carrier concentration and Hall mobility using the usual single-channel approach are not reliable, even at high temperatures. We propose a simple method to separate the contributions of the two channels. Our model, although only approximate, can be used to gain insight into the doping mechanism: particularly it shows that the room-temperature free-electron concentration in the conduction band of the Al0.6Ga0.4N material reaches its maximum at about 1.6  ×  1018 cm−3, well below the value that would have been obtained with the standard single-channel analysis of the data. This maximum is already achieved at dopant concentrations lower than the one that gives the best conductivity. However, further increase of the doping levels are required to enhance the impurity-band channel, with concentrations of the carriers participating in this type of transport that increase from 2.1  ×  1018 cm−3 up to 4.3  ×  1018 cm−3. For the Al0.85Ga0.15N, even though it was not possible to estimate the actual carrier concentrations, our measurements suggest that a significant impurity-band channel is present also in this material

Fabrication of p-type porous GaN on silicon and epitaxial GaN

Abstract : Porous GaN layers are grown on silicon from gold or platinum catalyst seed layers, and self-catalyzed on epitaxial GaN films on sapphire. Using a Mg-based precursor, we demonstrate p-type doping of the porous GaN. Electrical measurements for p-type GaN on Si show Ohmic and Schottky behavior from gold and platinum seeded GaN, respectively. Ohmicity is attributed to the formation of a Ga2Au intermetallic. Porous p-type GaN was also achieved on epitaxial n-GaN on sapphire, and transport measurements confirm a p-n junction commensurate with a doping density of 1018 cm 3. Photoluminescence and cathodoluminescence confirm emission from Mg-acceptors in porous p-type GaN

Study of porous monolithic sio2 prepeared by sol-gel method

For applications as catalyst supports in flow reactors, porous silica monoliths require a combination of connected pores of micron-scale and nm-scale pores. We have synthesised a range porous silica monoliths, characterised their nm-scale pores and measured their permeability coefficients k. It can be controlled by adjustment of the polymer/silane concentration ratio, whilst maintaining the specific surface area and nm-scale porosity approximately constant

Comparative study of polar and semipolar (1122) InGaN layers grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy

InGaN layers were grown simultaneously on (11¯22) GaN and (0001) GaN templates by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy. At higher growth temperature ( 750oC), the indium content (<15%) of the (11¯22) and (0001) InGaN layers was similar. However, for temperatures less than 750oC, the indium content of the (11¯22) InGaN layers (15 - 26%) was generally lower than those with (0001) orientation (15 - 32%). The compositional deviation was attributed to the different strain relaxations between the (11¯22) and (0001) InGaN layers. Room temperature photoluminescence measurements of the (11¯22) InGaN layers showed an emission wavelength that shifts gradually from 380 nm to 580 nm with decreasing growth temperature (or increasing indium composition). The peak emission wavelength of the (11 ¯22) InGaN layers with an indium content of more than 10% blue-shifted a constant value of (50 - 60) nm when using higher excitation power densities. This blue-shift was attributed to band lling effects in the layers.This work was nancially supported by the EU-FP7 ALIGHT project, under agreement no. FP7-280587. This work was also partially supported by the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) fourth and fth cycles. SNA acknowledges nancial support for his postgraduate fellowship from the Iranian Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. PJP acknowledges nancial support for his Professorship from Science Foundation Ireland.This is the accepted manuscript. The final version is available from AIP at http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/jap/116/15/10.1063/1.489856

Strongly nonparabolic variation of the band gap in InxAl1-xN with low indium content

80–120 nm thick InxAl1−xN epitaxial layers with 0 < x < 0.224 were grown by metalorganic vapour phase epitaxy on AlN/Al2O3-templates. The composition was varied through control of the growth temperature. The composition dependence of the band gap was estimated from the photoluminescence excitation absorption edge for 0 < x < 0.11 as the material with higher In content showed no luminescence under low excitation. A very rapid decrease in band gap was observed in this range, dropping down below 5.2 eV at x = 0.05, confirming previous theoretical work that used a band-anticrossing model to describe the strongly x-dependent bowing parameter, which in this case exceeds 25 eV in the x → 0 limit. A double absorption edge observed for InAlN with x < 0.01 was attributed to crystal-field splitting of the highest valence band states. Our results indicate also that the ordering of the valence bands is changed at much lower In contents than one would expect from linear interpolation of the valence band parameters. These findings on band gap bowing and valence band ordering are of direct relevance for the design of InAlN-containing optoelectronic devices

Fully porous GaN p-n junctions fabricated by chemical vapor deposition.

Porous GaN based LEDs produced by corrosion etching techniques demonstrated enhanced light extraction efficiency in the past. However, these fabrication techniques require further postgrown processing steps, which increases the price of the final system. Also, the penetration depth of these etching techniques is limited, and affects not only the semiconductor but also the other elements constituting the LED when applied to the final device. In this paper, we present the fabrication of fully porous GaN p–n junctions directly during growth, using a sequential chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process to produce the different layers that form the p–n junction. We characterized their diode behavior from room temperature to 673 K and demonstrated their ability as current rectifiers, thus proving the potential of these fully porous p–n junctions for diode and LEDs applications. The electrical and luminescence characterization confirm that high electronic quality porous structures can be obtained by this method, and we believe this investigation can be extended to other III–N materials for the development of white light LEDs, or to reduce reflection losses and narrowing the output light cone for improved LED external quantum efficiencies

InxAl1-xN/Al0.53Ga0.47N multiple quantum wells on Al0.5Ga0.5N buffer with variable in-plane lattice parameter

The structural and luminescent properties of InxAl1-xN/Al0.53Ga0.47N multiple quantum wells (MQW) grown on an Al0.5Ga0.5N buffer partially relaxed with respect to an underlying AlN-template are reported. A significant redshift and improvement of ultraviolet (UV) photoluminescence (PL) intensity is found for InAlN MQWs grown on AlGaN buffers with higher relaxation degree. This is attributed to a higher QW indium incorporation as confirmed also by X-ray diffraction (XRD). The nature of room temperature time resolved PL is studied and discussed from the point of view of the possibility of a type I-type II band lineup transition in the InAlN-AlGaN system

Ultraviolet stimulated emission in AlGaN layers grown on sapphire substrates using ammonia and plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy

Ammonia and plasma‐assisted (PA) molecular beam epitaxy modes are used to grow AlN and AlGaN epitaxial layers on sapphire substrates. It is determined that the increase of thickness of AlN buffer layer grown by ammonia‐MBE from 0.32 μm to 1.25 μm results in the narrowing of 101 X‐Ray rocking curves whereas no clear effect on 002 X‐Ray rocking curve width is observed. It is shown that strong GaN decomposition during growth by ammonia‐MBE causes AlGaN surface roughening and compositional inhomogeneity, which leads to deterioration of its lasing properties. AlGaN layers grown by ammonia‐MBE at optimized temperature demonstrate stimulated emission (SE) peaked at λ = 330 nm, 323 nm, 303 nm and 297 nm with the SE threshold values of 0.7 MW cm−2, 1.1 MW cm−2, 1.4 MW cm−2 and 1.4 MW cm−2, respectively. In comparison to these, AlGaN layer grown using PA‐MBE pulsed modes (migration‐enhanced epitaxy, metal‐modulated epitaxy, and droplet elimination by thermal annealing) shows a SE with a relatively low threshold (0.8 MW cm−2) at the considerably shorter wavelength of λ = 267 nm