Dislocation Reduction and Stress Relaxation of GaN and InGaN Multiple Quantum Wells with Improved Performance via Serpentine Channel Patterned Mask

详细信息    查看全文

• 作者：Qingbin Ji ; Lei Li ; Wei Zhang ; Jia Wang ; Peichi Liu ; Yahong Xie ; Tongxing Yan ; Wei Yang ; Weihua Chen ; Xiaodong Hu
• 刊名：ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces
• 出版年：2016
• 出版时间：August 24, 2016
• 年：2016
• 卷：8
• 期：33
• 页码：21480-21489
• 全文大小：665K
• 年卷期：0
• ISSN：1944-8252

文摘

The existence of high threading dislocation density (TDD) in GaN-based epilayers is a long unsolved problem, which hinders further applications of defect-sensitive GaN-based devices. Multiple-modulation of epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG) is used to achieve high-quality GaN template on a novel serpentine channel patterned sapphire substrate (SCPSS). The dislocation blocking brought by the serpentine channel patterned mask, coupled with repeated dislocation bending, can reduce the dislocation density to a yet-to-be-optimized level of ∼2 × 10⁵ to 2 × 10⁶ cm^–2. About 80% area utilization rate of GaN with low TDD and stress relaxation is obtained. The periodical variations of dislocation density, optical properties and residual stress in GaN-based epilayers on SCPSS are analyzed. The quantum efficiency of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) on it can be increased by 52% compared with the conventional sapphire substrate. The reduced nonradiative recombination centers, the enhanced carrier localization, and the suppressed quantum confined Stark effect, are the main determinants of improved luminous performance in MQWs on SCPSS. This developed ELOG on serpentine shaped mask needs no interruption and regrowth, which can be a promising candidate for the heteroepitaxy of semipolar/nonpolar GaN and GaAs with high quality.