We report the electrical and optical characteristics of avalanche photodiodes fabricated in GaN grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. The current–voltage characteristics indicate a multiplication of >25. Experiment indicates and simulation verifies that the magnitude of the electric field at the onset of avalanche gain is ⩾3 MV/cm. Small-area devices exhibit stable gain with no evidence of microplasmas.

AlGaN samples grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy on sapphire (0001) substrates, with 20%–50% Al content and without the use of indium, show intense room-temperature photoluminescence that is significantly redshifted, 200–400meV, from band edge. This intense emission is characterized by a long room-temperature lifetime (∼375ps) comparable to that seen in low defect density (∼108cm−2) GaN. Room-temperature monochromatic cathodoluminescence images at the redshifted peak reveal spatially nonuniform emission similar to that observed in In(Al)GaN alloys and attributed to compositional inhomogeneity. These observations suggest that spatial localization enhances the luminescence efficiency despite the high defect density (>1010cm−2) of the films by inhibiting movement of carriers to nonradiative sites.

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Interest in developing ultraviolet emitters using the III-Nitride family of semiconductors has sparked considerable effort in fabricating AlGaN alloys that exhibit enhanced luminescence based on strong carrier localization, similar to their InGaN brethren. In this paper, we report on the growth of such alloys by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE) without the use of indium. This enhancement is attributed to the presence of nanoscale compositional inhomogeneities (NCIs) in these materials. The emission wavelength in these materials has been tuned between 275 nm and 340 nm by varying growth conditions. The effects of dislocations on double heterostructures (DHs) that employ an NCI AlGaN active region has been investigated, with an internal quantum efficiency as high as 32% obtained for the lowest dislocation density samples (3 3 10 10 cm ÿ2 ). Prototype DH-ultraviolet light emitting diodes (DH-UVLEDs) emitting at 324 nm were fabricated employing an NCI AlGaN alloy as the active region.

Articles you may be interested inEffect of growth temperature on defects in epitaxial GaN film grown by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy AIP Advances 4, 027114 (2014); 10.1063/1.4866445Deep level transient spectroscopy in plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy grown Al 0.2 Ga 0.8 N / GaN interface and the rapid thermal annealing effect

We report on the improved device performance of GaN-based ultraviolet heterojunction photodiodes using a semi-transparent p-contact device structure. At a reverse bias of 10 V, these photodiodes exhibit a low dark current density of 0.3 nA/cm2. The external quantum efficiency is 38% at the band edge, with only a slight decrease at the shorter wavelengths. The forward current is >10 mA at Vf=5 V. Fitting of the forward current–voltage data to the diode equation yields a very low series resistance (Rs=62Ω), which results in a very fast decay of the time response. The improved performance afforded by the thin, semi-transparent, p-contact layer is due to an increase in the uniformity of the lateral field distribution.

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