Based on recent improvements of growth of In-rich InGaN quantum wells with low defect density, we demonstrate current driven InGaN laser diodes at wavelengths as long as 500 nm. The laser structures are grown on c-plane GaN substrate and are processed as broad oxide-insulated stripe laser diodes. We discuss the impact of the piezoelectric field on the emission energy of long wavelength laser diodes for this growth orientation. The combination of low threshold current density of 8.2 kA/cm2 with high slope efficiency of 650 mW/A enables high output powers up to several tens of milliwatts.

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The challenges of green InGaN lasers are discussed concerning material quality as a function of InGaN composition, quantum well design and piezoelectrical fields. Investigations of polar quantum well designs and comparison with simulated nonpolar structures demonstrate that the quality of the indium rich layers is more important than the influence of interface charges. A high risk of dark spots at high In concentrations of 26-33% is observed. Small changes of about 2% of In significant reduce or increase the quantity and size of dark luminescence areas. Polar designs are a trade-off between low indium concentrations of 4 nm wide quantum wells and high overlap of electrons and holes in 2 nm narrow designs. Furthermore, our single quantum wells have less non-radiative defects than indium rich multiquantum well structures. Optimized active layer designs and the material qualities enable us to get green InGaN lasers on c-plane substrates for cw operation at 515-524 nm and wall plug efficiencies of 3.9-2.3%. Slope efficiency of 0.3-0.4 W/A allows up to now highest optical output power of 50 mW.

Longitudinal mode competition in (Al,In)GaN laser diodes at λ = 445nm and 515 nm with mode competition frequencies from 10 MHz to 150 MHz is observed. Up to two dozen lasing modes oscillate with the lasing mode rolling from the short wavelength edge to the long wavelength edge of the gain profile. The experimental results can be described very well with a set of multi-mode rate equations including self-, symmetric and asymmetric cross gain saturation. By tuning essential parameters of the gain saturation terms, mode competition disappears and single mode operation as well as mode clustering is found. This proves that the mechanisms of gain saturation have not only a profound impact on the complex temporal-spectral behavior but also explains mode clustering in (Al,In)GaN laser diodes, both in pulsed and continuous wave (cw) operation as a natural nonlinear effect without the necessity to add noise.

In this work we present degradation studies of GaN based blue‐violet laser diodes grown on different substrates. By replacing the SiC substrate by GaN substrate, we change from hetero to homo epitaxy, while the threading dislocation density (TDD) is reduced by 3 orders of magnitude. A detailed analysis of small signal I –V curves shows an increase of non radiative (NR) recombination centers during aging for laser diodes on SiC substrate. This was not observed for lasers on GaN substrate due to the reduced TDD and therefore reduced number of diffusion channels for Mg‐atoms, acting as NR recombination centers in the active region. With an improved epitaxial structure on GaN substrate, we increased the lifetime of our lasers by a factor of 10. (© 2006 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

The formation of nanovoids upon high-dose hydrogen implantation and subsequent annealing in GaN is investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The epitaxial GaN layers on sapphire were implanted at room temperature with H2+ ions at 100keV with a dose of 13×1016cm−2. Cross section transmission electron microscopy investigations revealed that nanovoids about 2nm in diameter had formed during hydrogen implantation at room temperature while large microcracks (∼150–200nm long) occurred upon annealing (1h at 700°C) leading to surface blistering. The nanovoids serve as precursors to the microcrack formation and are essential for the blistering process.

In this paper, we discuss the physics of recombination in thick InGaN quantum-well (QW) based structures. Thick InGaN QWs have been suggested as one concept to reduce the typical decrease of internal efficiency of InGaN based light emitters towards high current densities. We show that at typical operation current densities, recombination in such thick QWs mainly originates from excited QW-states, which exhibit good electron hole overlap and large spatial extent, enabling a reduction of carrier density. We identify these states by comparing current dependent electroluminescence spectra to band structure simulations. The reduction of carrier density is verified by measuring current dependent carrier lifetimes. We find that saturation of efficiency is reduced for increasedQWthickness. However, the same effect can also be achieved using an MQW structure optimized for real MQW emission. We conclude that regardless of the employed concept, a decrease in carrier density is central to improve the high current efficiency of InGaN based light emitters

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