Using molecular beam epitaxy, self-assembled AlGaN nanowires are grown directly on Ta and Ti foils. Scanning electron microscopy shows that the nanowires are locally textured with the underlying metallic grains. Photoluminescence spectra of GaN nanowires grown on metal foils are comparable to GaN nanowires grown on single crystal Si wafers. Similarly, photoluminescence lifetimes do not vary significantly between these samples. Operational AlGaN light emitting diodes are grown directly on flexible Ta foil with an electroluminescence peak emission of ∼350 nm and a turn-on voltage of ∼5 V. These results pave the way for roll-to-roll manufacturing of solid state optoelectronics.

Polarization engineered interband tunnel junctions (TJs) are integrated in nanowire ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diodes (LEDs). A ∼6 V reduction in turn-on voltage is achieved by the integration of tunnel junction at the base of polarization doped nanowire UV LEDs. Moreover, efficient hole injection into the nanowire LEDs leads to suppressed efficiency droop in TJ integrated nanowire LEDs. The combination of both reduced bias voltage and increased hole injection increases the wall plug efficiency in these devices. More than 100 μW of UV emission at ∼310 nm is measured with external quantum efficiency in the range of 4–6 m%. The realization of tunnel junction within the nanowire LEDs opens a pathway towards the monolithic integration of cascaded multi-junction nanowire LEDs on silicon.

By quantum confining GaN at monolayer thickness with AlN barriers inside of a nanowire, deep ultraviolet LEDs are demonstrated. Full three-dimensional strain dependent energy band simulations are carried out within multiple quantum disk (MQD) GaN/AlN nanowire superlattice heterostructures. It is found that, even within the same nanowire MQD, the emission energy of the ultrathin GaN QDs varies from disk to disk due to the changing strain distribution and polarization charge induced energy band bending along the axial nanowire direction. MQD heterostructures are grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy to form self-assembled catalyst-free nanowires with 1 to 2 monolayer thick GaN insertions within an AlN matrix. Photoluminescence peaks are observed at 295 nm and 283 nm from the 2 ML and 1 ML thick MQD samples, respectively. Polarization-doped nanowire LEDs are grown incorporating 1 ML thick GaN MQD active regions from which we observe deep ultraviolet electroluminescence. The shortest LED wavelength peak observed is 240 nm and attributed to electron hole recombination within 1 ML thick GaN QDs.

As an alternative to light emitting diodes (LEDs) based on thin films, nanowire based LEDs are the focus of recent development efforts in solid state lighting as they offer distinct photonic advantages and enable direct integration on a variety of different substrates. However, for practical nanowire LEDs to be realized, uniform electrical injection must be achieved through large numbers of nanowire LEDs. Here, we investigate the effect of the integration of a III-Nitride polarization engineered tunnel junction (TJ) in nanowire LEDs on Si on both the overall injection efficiency and nanoscale current uniformity. By using conductive atomic force microscopy (cAFM) and current-voltage (IV) analysis, we explore the link between the nanoscale nonuniformities and the ensemble devices which consist of many diodes wired in parallel. Nanometer resolved current maps reveal that the integration of a TJ on n-Si increases the amount of current a single nanowire can pass at a given applied bias by up to an order of magnitude, with the top 10% of wires passing more than ×3.5 the current of nanowires without a TJ. This manifests at the macroscopic level as a reduction in threshold voltage by more than 3 V and an increase in differential conductance as a direct consequence of the integration of the TJ. These results show the utility of cAFM to quantitatively probe the electrical inhomogeneities in as-grown nanowire ensembles without introducing uncertainty due to additional device processing steps, opening the door to more rapid development of nanowire ensemble based photonics.

Commercial III-Nitride LEDs and lasers spanning visible and ultraviolet wavelengths are based on epitaxial films. Alternatively, nanowire-based III-Nitride optoelectronics offer the advantage of strain compliance and high crystalline quality growth on a variety of inexpensive substrates. However, nanowire LEDs exhibit an inherent property distribution, resulting in uneven current spreading through macroscopic devices that consist of millions of individual nanowire diodes connected in parallel. Despite being electrically connected, only a small fraction of nanowires, sometimes <1%, contribute to the electroluminescence (EL). Here, we show that a population of electrical shorts exists in the devices, consisting of a subset of low-resistance nanowires that pass a large portion of the total current in the ensemble devices. Burn-in electronic conditioning is performed by applying a short-term overload voltage; the nanoshorts experience very high current density, sufficient to render them open circuits, thereby forcing a new current path through more nanowire LEDs in an ensemble device. Current-voltage measurements of individual nanowires are acquired using conductive atomic force microscopy to observe the removal of nanoshorts using burn-in. In macroscopic devices, this results in a 33× increase in peak EL and reduced leakage current. Burn-in conditioning of nanowire ensembles therefore provides a straightforward method to mitigate nonuniformities inherent to nanowire devices.