MBE Growth of (In)GaN for LED Applications

Abstract

We report on essential aspects of the growth of InGaN / GaN p-n junctions by gas-source molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) and present the first blue and green electroluminescence from such structures grown entirely by MBE.

A study of the growth conditions for a GaN nucleation layer on sapphire and for the subsequent growth of undoped GaN points out the necessity for Ga-stabilized growth. Unintentionally doped GaN grown at 1 μm/h shows background doping levels below 10¹⁷ cm⁻³ and mobilities up to 320 cm²/Vsec (at 300K). Narrow photoluminescence with very low intensity in the yellow spectral range is observed. N- and p-type doping of GaN with Si and Mg yields layers with high mobilities (220 and 10 cm²/Vsec, respectively at 300K) at carrier densities typical for devices.

Although incorporation of Indium is strongly temperature-dependent, InGaN-layers with In-contents of over 40% are obtained routinely. The optical properties of our InGaN layers typically exhibit the commonly observed, broad deep level luminescence. Finally, we present electroluminescence in the visible spectral range up to 540 nm from InGaN / GaN double-heterojunctions.