Based on quantum efficiency and time-resolved electroluminescence measurements, the effects of carrier localization and quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) on carrier transport and recombination dynamics of Ga-and N-polar InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are reported. The N-polar LED exhibits shorter ns-scale response, rising, delay, and recombination times than the Ga-polar one does. Stronger carrier localization and the combined effects of suppressed QCSE and electric field and lower potential barrier acting upon the forward bias in an N-polar LED provide the advantages of more efficient carrier relaxation and faster carrier recombination. By optimizing growth conditions to enhance the radiative recombination, the advantages of more efficient carrier relaxation and faster carrier recombination in a competitive performance N-polar LED can be realized for applications of high-speed flash LEDs. The research results provide important information for carrier transport and recombination dynamics of an N-polar InGaN/GaN LED. V
Based on time-resolved electroluminescence (TREL) measurement, more efficient carrier injection, transport, relaxation, and recombination associated with a stronger carrier localization and a low polarization effect in a nonpolar m-plane InGaN/GaN light emitting diode (m-LED), compared with those in a polar c-LED, are reported. With a higher applied voltage in the c-LED, decreasing response time and rising time improve device performance, but a longer recombination time degrades luminescence efficiency. By using an m-LED with a stronger carrier localization and a low polarization effect, shorter response, rising, and recombination times provide more efficient carrier injection, transport, relaxation, and recombination. These advantages can be realized for high-power and high-speed flash LEDs. In addition, with a weaker carrier localization and a polarization effect in the c-LED, the slower radiative and faster nonradiative decay rates at a larger applied voltage result in the slower total decay rate and the lower luminescence efficiency. For the m-LED at a higher applied voltage, a slow decreasing nonradiative decay rate is beneficial to device performance, while the more slowly decreasing and overall faster radiative decay rate of the m-LED than that of the c-LED demonstrates that a stronger carrier localization and a reduced polarization effect are efficient for carrier recombination. The resulting recombination dynamics are correlated with the device characteristics and performance of the c- and m-LEDs.
In this study, effects of the thickness of a low temperature (LT) buffer and impurity incorporation on the characteristics of Nitrogen (N)-polar GaN are investigated. By using either a nitridation or thermal annealing step before the deposition of a LT buffer, three N-polar GaN samples with different thicknesses of LT buffer and different impurity incorporations are prepared. It is found that the sample with the thinnest LT buffer and a nitridation step proves to be the best in terms of a fewer impurity incorporations, strong PL intensity, fast mobility, small biaxial strain, and smooth surface. As the temperature increases at ~10 K, the apparent donor-acceptor-pair band is responsible for the decreasing integral intensity of the band-to-band emission peak. In addition, the thermal annealing of the sapphire substrates may cause more impurity incorporation around the HT-GaN/LT-GaN/sapphire interfacial regions, which in turn may result in a lower carrier mobility, larger biaxial strain, larger bandgap shift, and stronger yellow luminescence. By using a nitridation step, both a thinner LT buffer and less impurity incorporation are beneficial to obtaining a high quality N-polar GaN.
In this work, textured, well-faceted ZnO materials grown on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and cathode luminescence (CL) measurements. The results show that ZnO grown on planar Si(100), planar Si(111), and textured Si(100) substrates favor the growth of ZnO(110) ridge-like, ZnO(002) pyramid-like, and ZnO(101) pyramidal-tip structures, respectively. This could be attributed to the constraints of the lattice mismatch between the ZnO and Si unit cells. The average grain size of ZnO on the planar Si(100) substrate is slightly larger than that on the planar Si(111) substrate, while both of them are much larger than that on the textured Si(100) substrate. The average grain sizes (about 10–50 nm) of the ZnO grown on the different silicon substrates decreases with the increase of their strains. These results are shown to strongly correlate with the results from the SEM, AFM, and CL as well. The reflectance spectra of these three samples show that the antireflection function provided by theses samples mostly results from the nanometer-scaled texture of the ZnO films, while the micrometer-scaled texture of the Si substrate has a limited contribution. The results of this work provide important information for optimized growth of textured and well-faceted ZnO grown on wafer-based silicon solar cells and can be utilized for efficiency enhancement and optimization of device materials and structures, such as heterojunction with intrinsic thin layer (HIT) solar cells.
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