We perform parametrized density-functional calculations to predict the stability and formation mechanism of GaN nanotubes. Strain energies of GaN nanotubes are comparable to those of carbon nanotubes, suggesting the possibility for the formation of GaN nanotubes. We note that an intermediate phase with [4,6,10] polygons exist at armchair tube edge, which may play as a nucleation seed of further tube growth.

We report experiments on hot-electron stressing in commercial III-V nitride based heterojunction light-emitting diodes. Stressing currents ranging from 100 mA to 200 mA were used. Degradations in the device properties were investigated through detailed studies of the I-V characteristics, electroluminescence, Deep-Level Transient Fourier Spectroscopy and flicker noise. Our experimental data demonstrated significant distortions in the I-V characteristics. The room temperature electroluminescence of the devices exhibited 25% decrement in the peak emission intensity. Concentration of the deep-levels was examined by measuring the Deep-Level Transient Fourier Spectroscopy, which indicated an increase in the density of deep-traps from 2.7 × 1013 cm−3 to 4.21 × 1013 cm−3 at E1 = EC − 1.1eV. The result is consistent with our study of 1/f noise, which exhibited up to three orders of magnitude increase in the voltage noise power spectra. Our experiments show large increase in both the interface traps and deep-levels resulted from hot-carrier stressing.

We report systematic characterizations of flicker noise in GaN based MODFETs. Flicker noise was measured across the channel of the devices from room temperature to 130 K. The voltage noise power spectra, SV(f) were found to be proportional to 1/fγ, where γ depends on the device temperature as well as the gate bias. Study of SV(f) as a function of the biasing condition was conducted in detail and was found to vary as VD2/(VG−VT)β where β changes with temperature from about 2.1 at room temperature to about 0.9 at 130K. Analyses of the data showed that the noise originated from thermal activation of carriers to localized states in the channel area. The data suggested that the trapping and detrapping of carriers did not lead to fluctuations in the carrier concentration as postulated in the McWhorter’s model. However, more work is needed to determine if surface mobility fluctuations played key role in the 1/f noise.

Results of Monte Carlo simulations of electron transport for wurtzite phase GaN in crossed, weak electric and magnetic fields are presented. It is found that the Hall factor, rH = μHall/μdrift, decreases monotonically as the temperature increases from 77K to 400K.The low temperature value of the Hall factor increases significantly with increasing doping concentration. The Monte Carlo simulations take into account the electron-lattice interaction through polar optical phonon scattering, deformation potential acoustic phonon scattering (treated as an inelastic process), and piezoelectric acoustic phonon scattering. Impurity scattering due to ionized and neutral donors is also included, with the latter found to be important at low temperature due to the relatively large donor binding energy which implies considerable carrier freeze-out already at liquid nitrogen temperature. The temperature dependences of the electron concentration, drift mobility, and Hall factor are calculated for donor concentrations equal to 5 × 1016 cm−3, 1017 cm−3, and 5 × 1017 cm−3. The Monte Carlo simulations are compared to classical analytical results obtained using the relaxation-time approximation, which is found to be adequate at low temperatures and sufficiently low carrier concentrations so that inelastic scattering effects due to optical phonons and degeneracy effects are negligible. The influence of dislocations on the Hall factor is discussed briefly.

Base transit time, τb , in abrupt npn GaN/InGaN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) is reported. Base transit time strongly depends not only on the quasi-neutral base width, but also on the low field electron mobility, μn, in the neutral base region and the effective electron velocity, Sc, at the edge of base-collector heterojunction. μn and Sc are temperature-dependent parameters. A unity gain cut-off frequency of 10.6 GHz is obtained in AlGaN/GaN/AlGaN DHBTs and 19.1 GHz in GaN/InGaN/GaN DHBTs for a neutral base width of 0.05um. It is also shown that non-stationary transport is not required to study τb for neutral base width in the range of 0.05um for GaN-based HBTs.

First principles calculations are carried out for ZnO, MgO and ZnMgO2 in various crystal structures. The nature of the valence band ordering in ZnO is shown to depend strongly on the Zn3d band position. MgO in the wurtzitic form is found to gave an unusual 5-fold coordiated structure. The band gap dependence in the alloy system is found to be in fair agreement with experimental data and the band-offset is predicted to be type I.

Growth kinetics, mechanisms, and material quality in GaN epitaxial lateral over-growth (ELO) were examined using a single mask of systematically varied patterns. A 2-D gas phase reaction/diffusion model describes how transport of the Ga precursor to the growth surface enhances the lateral rate in the early stages of growth. In agreement with SEM studies of truncated growth runs, the model also predicts the dramatic decrease in the lateral rate that occurs as GaN over-growth reduces the exposed area of the mask. At the point of convergence, a step-flow coalescence mechanism is observed to fill in the area between lateral growth-fronts. This alternative growth mode in which a secondary growth of GaN is nucleated along a single convergence line, may be responsible for producing smooth films observed to have uniform cathodoluminescence (CL) when using 1μm nucleation zones. Although emission is comprised of both UV (∼365nm) and yellow (∼550nm) components, the spectra suggest these films have reduced concentrations of threading dislocations normally associated with non-radiative recombination centers and defects known to accompany growth-front convergence lines.

A systematic study of the growth and doping of GaN, AlGaN, and InGaN by both molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and metal-organic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE) has been performed. Critical differences between the resulting epitaxy are observed in the p-type doping using magnesium as the acceptor species. MBE growth, using rf-plasma sources to generate the active nitrogen species for growth, has been used for III-Nitride compounds doped either n-type with silicon or p-type with magnesium. Blue and violet light emitting diode (LED) test structures were fabricated. These vertical devices required a relatively high forward current and exhibited high leakage currents. This behavior was attributed to parallel shorting mechanisms along the dislocations in MBE grown layers. For comparison, similar devices were fabricated using a single wafer vertical flow MOVPE reactor and ammonia as the active nitrogen species. MOVPE grown blue LEDs exhibited excellent forward device characteristics and a high reverse breakdown voltage. We feel that the excess hydrogen, which is present on the GaN surface due to the dissociation of ammonia in MOVPE, acts to passivate the dislocations and eliminate parallel shorting for vertical device structures. These findings support the widespread acceptance of MOVPE, rather than MBE, as the epitaxial growth technique of choice for III-V nitride materials used in vertical transport bipolar devices for optoelectronic applications.

The electronic band structure, structural and bonding, and some linear and nonlinear optical properties are calculated for a new ternary nitride compound ZnGeN2 using first-principles methods. Good agreement is obtained with crystallographic data and with absorption data on the band gap. The prospects for use as nonlinear optical material are discussed.

We report on the electrical properties of defects as determined by deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) introduced in epitaxially grown n-GaN by 2.0 MeV protons and 5.4 MeV He-ions. After He-ion bombardment three electron traps ER3 (Ec − 0.196 eV), ER4 (Ec − 0.78 eV), and ER5 (Ec − 0.95 eV) were introduced uniformly in the region profiled by DLTS with introduction rates of 3270 ± 200, 1510 ± 300, and 3030 ± 500 cm−1 respectively. Capture cross section measurements revealed that the electron capture kinetics of ER5 is similar to that of a line defect. A defect with similar electronic properties as ER3 is observed after 2.0 MeV proton irradiation. The emission rate of ER3 depends on the electric field strength in the space-charge region. This emission rate is modelled according to the Poole-Frenkel distortion of a square well with a radius of 20 ± 2 Å or alternatively, a Gaussian well with a characteristic width of 6.0 ± 1 Å. Hence, we conclude that ER1 is a point defect which appears to have an acceptor like character. Two additional electron traps, ER1 (Ec −0.13 eV) and ER2 (Ec − 0.16eV) with introduction rates of 30 ± 10 and 600 ± 100 cm−1 not thusfar observed after electron or He-ion bombardment were observed after proton irradiation.

We have used current-voltage (I-V) measurements to assess and compare the electrical characteristics of resistively evaporated and sputter deposited Au Schottky contacts on epitaxially grown GaN. These I-V measurements revealed that resistively deposited Au contacts exhibited excellent rectification properties: high barrier height, low reverse current and good ideality factor (n = 1.04). In contrast, sputter deposited contacts had poor characteristics: low barrier height, high reverse current and non-linear forward I-V characteristics. The cause of this is thought to be defects introduced at and near the surface during sputter deposition. Deep level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) showed that at least four defects, with energy levels at 0.22±0.02 eV, 0.30±0.01 eV, 0.40±0.01 eV and 0.45±0.10 eV below the conduction band, were introduced in the GaN during sputter deposition. The first of these defects has similar electronic properties as a radiation induced defect in GaN, speculated to be the nitrogen vacancy, while the second appears to be the same as a defect in the as-grown material. The latter two defects have not previously been observed in as-grown or processed epitaxial GaN.

Results are presented on the photoluminescence of n-GaN (T=300 K) after surface treatment with sulfide (Na2S and (NH4)2S) solutions in water or isopropyl alcohol.

It has been shown that the intensity of the n-GaN photoluminescence band is enhanced as a result of the surface treatment with alcoholic sulfide solutions, this enhancement being greater for a strongly basic Na2S solution than for a weakly basic (NH4)2S solution.

Epitaxial single crystal GaN films (2.0 μm thick) were implanted 60° off the <0001> surface normal with 600 keV O+ ions at 190 or 210 K over a range of ion fluences from 4.8×1017 to 5.0×1020 ions/m2. The implantation damage, as determined by in-situ Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry in a <0001> channeling geometry (RBS/C), ranged from dilute defects up to the formation of a disorder saturation state that was not fully amorphous. The relative disorder on the Ga sublattice exhibited a sigmoidal dependence on ion fluence. Results show that GaN crystals are extremely resistant to the ion implantation damage as compared to other ceramic materials like SiC. An asymmetric shape in the angular scan curve around the <0001> axis, which might be associated with the Ga lattice distortion in the crystal structure, was observed for the as-irradiated material to the highest ion fluence (5.0×1020 O+/m2) at 210 K. Comparisons of Ga disorder depth-profiles from the experiment and SRIM97 simulations suggest that the damage peaks shift to greater depths at the low irradiation temperature (210 K). Significant recovery of these defects was not observed in the isochronal annealing steps (20-min) up to 970 K.

We designed and studied two sample groups: first, GaInN/AlGaN/GaN quantum wells with asymmetric barrier structure and secondly, GaInN/GaN quantum wells with asymmetrically doped barriers. Time-resolved measurements on the asymmetric structure reveal an enhanced oscillator strength when the AlGaN barrier is on top of the GaInN quantum well, indicating a better carrier confinement in such a structure. The photoluminescence emission energy of the GaInN/GaN quantum well with doped GaN barriers shifts towards higher energy than that of undoped samples due to screening, but only when the GaN barrier layer below the quantum well is doped. In contrast, the sample where only a GaN cap layer above the quantum well is doped, shows no blue-shift. These results, showing asymmetries in GaInN/GaN quantum wells, provide confirming evidence of the piezoelectric field effect and allow us to determine the sign of the piezoelectric field, which points towards the substrate in a compressively strained quantum well. Furthermore, we performed model calculations of the global band bending and the screening effect, which consistently explain our experimental findings.

Control of the polarity of GaN films deposited by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition was achieved by substrate nitridation and subsequent annealing of a buffer layer. The surface morphology and optical properties of 1.2μm GaN films were influenced by the different growth mode due to the polar direction. Coaxial impact collision ion scattering spectroscopy revealed that the polarity composition of a buffer layer on nitrided sapphire varied by annealing in a H2 atmosphere. It was considered that the systematic variation of the surface morphology was caused by the polarity composition of the buffer layer.

Quantum well (QW) material engineering has attracted a considerable amount of interest from many people because of its ability to produce a number of optoelectronic devices. QW composition intermixing is a thermal induced interdiffusion of the constituent atoms through the hetero-interface. The intermixing process is an attractive way to achieve the modification of the QW band structure. It is known that the band structure is a fundamental determinant for such electronic and optical properties of materials as the optical gain, the refractive index and the absorption. During the process, the as-grown square-QW compositional profile is modified to a graded profile, thereby altering the confinement profile and the subband structure in the QW. The blue-shifting of the wavelength in the intermixed QW structure is found in this process.

In recent years, III-nitride semiconductors have attracted much attention. This is mainly due to their large bandgap range from 1.89eV (wurtzite InN) to 3.44eV (wurtzite GaN). InGaN/GaN quantum well structures have been used to achieve high lumens blue and green light emitting diodes. Such structures also facilitate the production of full colour LED displays by complementing the colour spectrum of available LEDs.

In this paper, the effects of thermal annealing on the strained-layer InGaN/GaN QW will be presented. The effects of intermixing on the confinement potential of InGaN/GaN QWs have been theoretically analysed, with sublattices interdiffusion as the basis. This process is described by Fick’s law, with constant diffusion coefficients in both the well and the barrier layers. The diffusion coefficients depend on the annealing temperature, time and the activation energy of constituent atoms. The optical properties of intermixed InGaN/GaN QW structure of different interdiffusion rates have been theoretically analyzed for applications of novel optical devices. The photoluminescence studies and the intermixed QW modeling have been used to understand the effects of intermixing.

The incorporation of oxygen onto the (3×3) reconstructed surface of GaN(0001) has been studied using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). It was found that the (3×3) reconstruction corresponds to a fractional Ga adlayer atop a Ga terminated GaN surface. Our measurements indicate a surface coverage of 1.15 ± 0.2 monolayers of relaxed Ga on the surface. The binding energy separation between the relaxed surface Ga3d core level and bulk Ga3d level was measured to be 1.1 ± 0.1 eV. A metallic component extending from the bulk GaN valence band maximum out to 0 eV was also present in the XPS spectrum. The separation between the bulk valence band maximum and the Fermi level of the metallic component was found to be 2.1 ± 0.1 eV. The relaxation of the surface Ga was found to decrease with oxygen exposure indicating Ga-O bonding, with oxygen adsorption terminating at 1.3 ± 0.2 monolayers. The O1s core level was found to have a FWHM of 2.0 ± 0.1 eV.

We have investigated the thermal stability of GaN using Raman scattering. Noninvasive optical monitoring of the degradation of GaN during high-temperature processing has been demonstrated. GaN samples grown by molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) and metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOCVD) were studied. Characteristic features in the Raman spectrum identify three thermal stability regimes: (1) annealing below 900°C does not affect the GaN Raman spectrum; (2) annealing between 900°C and 1000°C results in the appearance of disorder-induced Raman scattering between the E2 and A1(LO) phonon; (3) annealing at temperatures higher than 1000°C gives rise to distinct Raman modes at 630 cm−1, 656 cm−1 and 770 cm−1. The evolution of the Raman spectrum of GaN with increasing annealing temperature is discussed in terms of disorder-induced Raman scattering. We find clear indications for an interfacial reaction between GaN and sapphire for annealing temperatures higher than 1000°C.

Electroluminescence spectra of light-emitting diodes based on InGaN/AlGaN/GaN heterostructures with single and multiple quantum wells (QWs) are analyzed by models of radiative recombination in 2D-structures with band tails. Equations of the model fit spectra quite good in a wide range of currents. Parameters of the fit are discussed and compared for single and multiple QWs. Tunnel effects play a sufficient role in blue LEDs with single QWs at low currents; they can be neglected in LEDs with multiple QWs. A new spectral band was detected at the high energy side of the spectra of green LEDs with multiple QWs; it is attributed with large scale inhomogenities of In distribution in InGaN QWs.*)

Hall effect measurements have been applied for the electrical characterization of p-type Mg-doped GaN grown by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy on sapphire substrates in terms of annealing temperature for dehydrogenation (N2 annealing) and hydrogenation (H2 annealing) of the acceptors. With the N2 annealing temperature from 600 to 900 °C for dehydrogenation, both hole concentration and mobility increases, showing more activation of acceptors and less incorporation of unfavorable scattering centers probably originating from Mg-H bondings. The N2 annealing at higher than the growth temperature results in reduced hole concentration, but the mobility gets higher. Some defects compensating acceptors may be induced at high temperature annealing, but they seem to be no scattering centers and be inactivated by successive hydrogenation and re-dehydrogenation at the optimum dehydrogenation temperature 900 °C. The electrical degradation of GaN due to thermal damage is not very destructive and can be well recovered by annealing treatments.