Effects of a prestrained InGaN interlayer on the emission properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells in a laser diode structure

The electroluminescence （EL） and photoluminescence （PL） spectra of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells （MQWs） with a prestrained InGaN interlayer in a laser diode structure are investigated. When the injection current increases from 5 mA to 50 mA, the blueshift of the EL emission peak is 1 meV for the prestrained sample and 23 meV for a control sample with the conventional structure. Also, the internal quantum efficiency and the EL intensity at the injection current of 20 mA are increased by 71% and 65% respectively by inserting the prestrained InGaN interlayer. The reduced blueshift and the enhanced emission are attributed mainly to the reduced quantum-confined Stark effect （QCSE） in the prestrained sample. Such attributions are supported by the theoretical simulation results, which reveal the smaller piezoelectric field and the enhanced overlap of electron and hole wave functions in the prestrained sample. Therefore, the prestrained InGaN interlayer contributes to strain relaxation in the MQW layer and enhancement of light emission due to the reduction of QCSE.

Influence of barrier thickness on the structural and optical properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells

The structural and optical properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells （MQWs） with different barrier thick-nesses are studied by means of high resolution X-ray diffraction （HRXRD）, a cross-sectional transmission electron mi-croscope （TEM）, and temperature-dependent photoluminescence （PL） measurements. HRXRD and cross-sectional TEM measurements show that the interfaces between wells and barriers are abrupt and the entire MQW region has good periodic- ity for all three samples. As the barrier thickness is increased, the temperature of the turning point from blueshift to redshift of the S-shaped temperature-dependent PL peak energy increases monotonously, which indicates that the localization po- tentials due to In-rich clusters is deeper. From the Arrhenius plot of the normalized integrated PL intensity, it is found that there are two kinds of nonradiative recombination processes accounting for the thermal quenching of photoluminescence, and the corresponding activation energy （or the localization potential） increases with the increase of the barrier thickness. The dependence on barrier thickness is attributed to the redistribution of In-rich clusters during the growth of barrier layers, i.e., clusters with lower In contents aggregate into clusters with higher In contents.

The exciton-longitudinal-optical-phonon coupling in InGaN/GaN single quantum wells with various cap layer thicknesses

This paper studies the exciton-longitudinal-optical-phonon coupling in InGaN/GaN single quantum wells with various cap layer thicknesses by low temperature photoluminescence （PL） measurements. With increasing cap layer thickness, the PL peak energy shifts to lower energy and the coupling strength between the exciton and longitudinal- optical （LO） phonon, described by Huang-Rhys factor, increases remarkably due to an enhancement of the internal electric field. With increasing excitation intensity, the zero-phonon peak shows a blueshift and the Huang-Rhys factor decreases. These results reveal that there is a large built-in electric field in the well layer and the exciton-LO-phonon coupling is strongly affected by the thickness of the cap layer.

Blue InGaN light-emitting diodes with dip-shaped quantum wells

InGaN based light-emitting diodes （LEDs） with dip-shaped quantum wells and conventional rectangular quantum ~lls are numerically investigated by using the APSYS simulation software. It is found that the structure with dip- aped quantum wells shows improved light output power, lower current leakage and less efficiency droop. Based on Lmerical simulation and analysis, these improvements on the electrical and the optical characteristics are attributed ainly to the alleviation of the electrostatic field in dip-shaped InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells （MQWs）.

Analysis of localization effect in blue-violet light emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells with different well widths

Four blue-violet light emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well（MQW） structures with different well widths are grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition. The carrier localization effect in these samples is investigated mainly by temperature-dependent photoluminescence measurements. It is found that the localization effect is enhanced as the well width increases from 1.8 nm to 3.6 nm in our experiments. The temperature induced PL peak blueshift and linewidth variation increase with increasing well width, implying that a greater amplitude of potential fluctuation as well as more localization states exist in wider wells. In addition, it is noted that the broadening of the PL spectra always occurs mainly on the low-energy side of the PL spectra due to the temperature-induced band-gap shrinkage, while in the case of the widest well, a large extension of the spectral curve also occurs in the high energy sides due to the existence of more shallow localized centers.

A dual-blue light-emitting diode based on strain-compensated InGaN-AlGaN/GaN quantum wells

A strain-compensated InGaN quantum well（QW） active region employing a tensile AlGaN barrier is analyzed.Its spectral stability and efficiency droop for a dual-blue light-emitting diode（LED） are improved compared with those of the conventional InGaN/GaN QW dual-blue LEDs based on a stacking structure of two In0.18Ga0.82N/GaN QWs and two In0.12Ga0.88N/GaN QWs on the same sapphire substrate.It is found that the optimal performance is achieved when the Al composition of the strain-compensated AlGaN layer is 0.12 in blue QW and 0.21 in blue-violet QW.The improvement performance can be attributed to the strain-compensated InGaN-AlGaN/GaN QW,which can provide a better carrier confinement and effectively reduce leakage current.

Influences of excitation power and temperature on photoluminescence in phase-separated InGaN quantum wells

The photoluminescence（PL） properties of a green and blue light-emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structure with a strong phase separated into quasi-quantum dots（QDs） and an InGaN matrix in the InGaN epilayer are investigated.The excitation power dependences of QD-related green emissions（PD〉） and matrix-related blue emissions（PM） in the low excitation power range of the PL peak energy and line-width indicate that at 6 K both Pm and PD are dominated by the combined action of Coulomb screening and localized state filling effect.However,at 300 K,Pm is dominated by the non-radiative recombination of the carriers in the InGaN matrix,while PD is influenced by the carriers transferred from the shallower QDs to deeper QDs by tunnelling.This is consistent with the excitation power dependence of the PL efficiency for the emission.

Advantages of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well solar cells with stepped-thickness quantum wells

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well （MQW） solar cells with stepped-thickness quantum wells （SQW） are designed and grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The stepped-thickness quantum wells structure, in which the well thickness becomes smaller and smaller along the growth direction, reveals better crystalline quality and better spectral overlap with the solar spectrum. Consequently, the short-circuit current density （Jsc） and conversion efficiency of the solar cell are enhanced by 27.12% and 56.41% compared with the conventional structure under illumination of AM1.5G （100 mW/cm2）. In addition, approaches to further promote the performance of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well solar cells are discussed and presented.

Growth and Properties of Blue and Amber Complex Light Emitting InGaN/GaN Multi-Quantum Wells

Blue-red complex light emitting InGaN/GaN multi-quantum well(MQW)structures are fabricated by metal organic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD).The structures are grown on a 2-inch diameter(0001)oriented(c−face)sapphire substrate,which consists of an approximately 2-µm−thick GaN template and a five-period layer consisting of a 4.9-nm-thick In0.18Ga0.82N well layer and a GaN barrier layer.The surface morphology of the MQW structures is observed by an atomic force microscope(AFM),which indicates the presence of islands of several tens of nanometers in height on the surface.The high resolution x−ray diffraction(XRD)θ/2θscan is carried out on the symmetric(0002)of the InGaN/GaN MQW structures.At least four order satellite peaks presented in the XRD spectrum indicate that the thickness and alloy compositions of the individual quantum wells are repeatable throughout the active region.Besides the 364 nm GaN band edge emission,two main emissions of blue and amber light from these MQWs are found,which possibly originate from the carrier recombinations in the InGaN/GaN QWs and InGaN quasi-quantum dots embedded in the QWs.

Low-Dose 1 MeV Electron Irradiation-Induced Enhancement in the Photoluminescence Emission of Ga-Rich InGaN Multiple Quantum Wells

We investigate the photoluminescence(PL)emission from InGaN/GaN multiple quantum-well structures before and after 1 MeV electron irradiation.The PL peak intensity exhibits a slight enhancement after low-dose electron irradiation(2×10^(13) e/cm^(2)),and then decreases with the cumulative electron dose.Meanwhile,the full width at half maximum of the PL spectrum narrows after low-dose electron irradiation and widens when the irradiation dose is relatively high.With respect to the yellow photoluminescence,there is no significant change until the electron fluence has accumulated up to 10^(14) e/cm^(2).

Evaluation of polarization field in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well structures by using electroluminescence spectra shift

In order to investigate the inherent polarization intensity in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well(MQW) structures,the electroluminescence(EL) spectra of three samples with different GaN barrier thicknesses of 21.3 nm, 11.4 nm, and 6.5 nm are experimentally studied. All of the EL spectra present a similar blue-shift under the low-level current injection,and then turns to a red-shift tendency when the current increases to a specific value, which is defined as the turning point.The value of this turning point differs from one another for the three InGaN/GaN MQW samples. Sample A, which has the GaN barrier thickness of 21.3 nm, shows the highest current injection level at the turning point as well as the largest value of blue-shift. It indicates that sample A has the maximum intensity of the polarization field. The red-shift of the EL spectra results from the vertical electron leakage in InGaN/GaN MQWs and the corresponding self-heating effect under the high-level current injection. As a result, it is an effective approach to evaluate the polarization field in the InGaN/GaN MQW structures by using the injection current level at the turning point and the blue-shift of the EL spectra profiles.

Efficiency droop alleviation in blue light emitting diodes using the InGaN/GaN triangular-shaped quantum well

The InGaN/GaN blue light emitting diode（LED） is numerically investigated using a triangular-shaped quantum well model,which involves analysis on its energy band,carrier concentration,overlap of electron and hole wave functions,radiative recombination rate,and internal quantum efficiency.The simulation results reveal that the InGaN/GaN blue light emitting diode with triangular quantum wells exhibits a higher radiative recombination rate than the conventional light emitting diode with rectangular quantum wells due to the enhanced overlap of electron and hole wave functions（above 90%） under the polarization field.Consequently,the efficiency droop is only 18% in the light emitting diode with triangular-shaped quantum wells,which is three times lower than that in a conventional LED.

Effects of polarization on intersubband transitions of Al_xGa_(1-x)N/GaN multi-quantum wells

The effects of polarization and related structural parameters on the intersubband transitions of A1GaN/GaN multi- quantum wells （MQWs） have been investigated by solving the Schr6dinger and the Poisson equations self-consistently. The results show that the intersubband absorption coefficient increases with increasing polarization while the transition wavelength decreases, which is not identical to the case of the interband transitions. Moreover, it suggests that the well width has a greater effect on the intersubband transitions than the barrier thickness, and the intersubband transition wavelength of the structure when doped in the barrier is shorter than that when doped in the well. It is found that the influences of the structural parameters differ for different electron subbands. The mechanisms responsible for these effects have been investigated in detail.

Improvement of green InGaN-based LEDs efficiency using a novel quantum well structure

The green light emitting diodes （LEDs） have lower quantum efficiency than LEDs with other emission wavelengths in the visible spectrum. In this research, a novel quantum well structure was designed to improve the electroluminescence （EL） of green InGaN-based LEDs. Compared with the conventional quantum well structure, the novel structure LED gained 2.14 times light out power （LOP） at 20-mA current injection, narrower FWHM and lower blue-shift at different current injection conditions.

Effects of multiple interruptions with trimethylindium-treatment in the InGaN/GaN quantum well on green light emitting diodes

In this study, the influence of multiple interruptions with trimethylindium(TMIn)-treatment in InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells(MQWs) on green light-emitting diode(LED) is investigated. A comparison of conventional LEDs with the one fabricated with our method shows that the latter has better optical properties. Photoluminescence(PL) full-width at half maximum(FWHM) is reduced, light output power is much higher and the blue shift of electroluminescence(EL) dominant wavelength becomes smaller with current increasing. These improvements should be attributed to the reduced interface roughness of MQW and more uniformity of indium distribution in MQWs by the interruptions with TMIn-treatment.

InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well solar cells with an enhanced open-circuit voltage

In this paper, InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well solar cells （MQWSCs） with an In content of 0.15 are fabricated and studied. The short-circuit density, fill factor and open-circuit voltage （Voc） of the device are 0.7 mA/cm2, 0.40 and 2.22 V, respectively. The results exhibit a significant enhancement of Voc compared with those of InGaN-based hetero and homojunction cells. This enhancement indicates that the InGaN/GaN MQWSC offers an effective way for increasing Voc of an In-rich InxGal-~N solar cell. The device exhibits an external quantum efficiency （EQE） of 36% （7%） at 388 nm （430 nm）. The photovoltaic performance of the device can be improved by optimizing the structure of the InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well.

Electron mobility limited by surface and interface roughness scattering in Al_xGa_(1-x)N/GaN quantum wells

The electron mobility limited by the interface and surface roughness scatterings of the two-dimensional electron gas in AlxGa1-xN/GaN quantum wells is studied. The newly proposed surface roughness scattering in the AlGaN/GaN quantum wells becomes effective when an electric field exists in the AlxGa1-xN barrier. For the AlGaN/GaN potential well, the ground subband energy is governed by the spontaneous and the piezoelectric polarization fields which are determined by the barrier and the well thicknesses. The thickness fluctuation of the AlGaN barrier and the GaN well due to the roughnesses cause the local fluctuation of the ground subband energy, which will reduce the 2DEG mobility.

Epitaxial evolution on buried cracks in a strain-controlled AlN/GaN superlattice interlayer between AlGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells and a GaN template

Epitaxial evolution of buried cracks in a strain-controlled AIN/GaN superlattice interlayer （IL） grown on GaN tem- plate, resulting in crack-free AIGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells （MQW）, was investigated. The processes of filling the buried cracks include crack formation in the IL, coalescence from both side walls of the crack, build-up of an MQW-layer hump above the cracks, lateral expansion and merging with the surrounding MQW, and two-dimensional step flow growth. It was confirmed that the filling content in the buried cracks is pure GaN, originating from the deposition of the GaN thin layer directly after the IL. Migration of Ga adatoms into the cracks plays a key role in the filling the buried cracks.

Effects of interface roughness on photoluminescence full width at half maximum in GaN/AlGaN quantum wells

Low temperature photoluminescence （PL） measurements have been performed for a set of GaN/AlxGal xN quantum wells （QWs）. The experimental results show that the optical full width at half maximum （FWHM） increases relatively rapidly with increasing A1 composition in the AlxGal xN barrier, and increases only slightly with increasing GaN well width. A model considering the interface roughness is used to interpret the experimental results. In the model, the FWHM＇s broadening caused by the interface roughness is calculated based on the triangle potential well approximation. We find that the calculated results accord with the experimental results well.

Fabrication and optical properties of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light emitting diodes with amorphous BaTiO_3 ferroelectric film

BaTiO3 （BTO） ferroelectric thin films are prepared by the sol,el method. The fabrication and the optical properties of an InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light emitting diode （LED） with amorphous BTO ferroelectric thin film are studied. The photolumineseence （PL） of the BTO ferroelectric film is attributed to the structure. The ferroeleetric film which annealed at 673 K for 8 h has the better PL property. The peak width is about 30 nm from 580 nm to 610 nm, towards the yellow region. The mixed electroluminescence （EL） spectrum of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well LED with 150-nm thick amorphous BTO ferroelectric thin film displays the blue-white light. The Commission Internationale De L＇Eclairage （CIE） coordinate of EL is （0.2139, 0.1627）. EL wavelength and intensity depends on the composition, microstructure and thickness of the ferroelectric thin film. The transmittance of amorphous BTO thin film is about 93% at a wavelength of 450 nm-470 nm. This means the amorphous ferroelectrie thin films can output more blue-ray and emission lights. In addition, the amorphous ferroelectric thin films can be directly fabricated without a binder and used at higher temperatures （200 ℃-400 ℃）. It is very favourable to simplify the preparation process and reduce the heat dissipation requirements of an LED. This provides a new way to study LEDs.