Progress in efficient doping of Al-rich AlGaN

The development of semiconductors is always accompanied by the progress in controllable doping techniques.Taking AlGaN-based ultraviolet(UV)emitters as an example,despite a peak wall-plug efficiency of 15.3%at the wavelength of 275 nm,there is still a huge gap in comparison with GaN-based visible light-emitting diodes(LEDs),mainly attributed to the inefficient doping of AlGaN with increase of the Al composition.First,p-doping of Al-rich AlGaN is a long-standing challenge and the low hole concentration seriously restricts the carrier injection efficiency.Although p-GaN cladding layers are widely adopted as a compromise,the high injection barrier of holes as well as the inevitable loss of light extraction cannot be neglected.While in terms of n-doping the main issue is the degradation of the electrical property when the Al composition exceeds 80%,resulting in a low electrical efficiency in sub-250 nm UV-LEDs.This review summarizes the recent advances and outlines the major challenges in the efficient doping of Al-rich AlGaN,meanwhile the corresponding approaches pursued to overcome the doping issues are discussed in detail.