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    Temperature-Dependent Charge Carrier Diffusion in [0001¯] Direction of GaN Determined by Luminescence Evaluation of Buried InGaN Quantum Wells
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2020) Netzel, Carsten; Hoffmann, Veit; Tomm, Jens W.; Mahler, Felix; Einfeldt, Sven; Weyers, Markus
    Temperature-dependent transport of photoexcited charge carriers through a nominally undoped, c-plane GaN layer toward buried InGaN quantum wells is investigated by continuous-wave and time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy. The excitation of the buried InGaN quantum wells is dominated by charge carrier diffusion through the GaN layer; photon recycling contributes only slightly. With temperature decreasing from 310 to 10 K, the diffusion length in [0001⎯⎯] direction increases from 250 to 600 nm in the GaN layer. The diffusion length at 300 K also increases from 100 to 300 nm when increasing the excitation power density from 20 to 500 W cm−2. The diffusion constant decreases from the low-temperature value of ∼7 to 1.5 cm2 s−1 at 310 K. The temperature dependence of the diffusion constant indicates that the diffusivity at room temperature is limited by optical phonon scattering. Consequently, higher diffusion constants in GaN-based devices require a reduced operation temperature. To increase diffusion lengths at a fixed temperature, the effective recombination time has to be prolonged by reducing the number of nonradiative recombination centers.
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    Status and Prospects of AlN Templates on Sapphire for Ultraviolet Light-Emitting Diodes
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2020) Hagedorn, Sylvia; Walde, Sebastian; Knauer, Arne; Susilo, Norman; Pacak, Daniel; Cancellara, Leonardo; Netzel, Carsten; Mogilatenko, Anna; Hartmann, Carsten; Wernicke, Tim; Kneissl, Michael; Weyers, Markus
    Herein, the scope is to provide an overview on the current status of AlN/sapphire templates for ultraviolet B (UVB) and ultraviolet C (UVC) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with focus on the work done previously. Furthermore, approaches to improve the properties of such AlN/sapphire templates by the combination of high-temperature annealing (HTA) and patterned AlN/sapphire interfaces are discussed. While the beneficial effect of HTA is demonstrated for UVC LEDs, the growth of relaxed AlGaN buffer layers on HTA AlN is a challenge. To achieve relaxed AlGaN with a low dislocation density, the applicability of HTA for AlGaN is investigated. © 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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    High-Temperature Annealing of AlGaN
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2020) Hagedorn, Sylvia; Khan, Taimoor; Netzel, Carsten; Hartmann, Carsten; Walde, Sebastian; Weyers, Markus
    In the past few years, high-temperature annealing of AlN has become a proven method for providing AlN layers with low dislocation densities. Herein, the example of Al0.77Ga0.23N is used to investigate whether annealing can also improve the material quality of the ternary alloy. A detailed analysis of the influence of annealing temperature on structural and optical material properties is presented. It is found that with increasing annealing temperature, the threading dislocation density can be lowered from an initial value of 6.0 × 109 down to 2.6 × 109 cm−2. Ga depletion at the AlGaN surface and Ga diffusion into the AlN buffer layer are observed. After annealing, the defect luminescence between 3 and 4 eV is increased, accompanied by an increase in the oxygen concentration by about two orders of magnitude. Furthermore, due to annealing optical absorption at 325 nm (3.8 eV) occurs, which increases with increasing annealing temperature. It is assumed that the reason for this decrease in ultraviolet (UV) transmittance is the increasing number of vacancies caused by the removal of group-III and N atoms from the AlGaN lattice during annealing.
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    Improving AlN Crystal Quality and Strain Management on Nanopatterned Sapphire Substrates by High-Temperature Annealing for UVC Light-Emitting Diodes
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2020) Hagedorn, Sylvia; Walde, Sebastian; Susilo, Norman; Netzel, Carsten; Tillner, Nadine; Unger, Ralph-Stephan; Manley, Phillip; Ziffer, Eviathar; Wernicke, Tim; Becker, Christiane; Lugauer, Hans-Jürgen; Kneissl, Michael; Weyers, Markus
    Herein, AlN growth by metalorganic vapor-phase epitaxy on hole-type nanopatterned sapphire substrates is investigated. Cracking occurs for an unexpectedly thin-layer thickness, which is associated to altered nucleation conditions caused by the sapphire pattern. To overcome the obstacle of cracking and at the same time to decrease the threading dislocation density by an order of magnitude, high-temperature annealing (HTA) of a 300 nm-thick AlN starting layer is successfully introduced. By this method, 800 nm-thick, fully coalesced and crack-free AlN is grown on 2 in. nanopatterned sapphire wafers. The usability of such templates as basis for UVC light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is furthermore proved by subsequent growth of an UVC-LED heterostructure with single peak emission at 265 nm. Prerequisites for the enhancement of the light extraction efficiency by hole-type nanopatterned sapphire substrates are discussed. © 2020 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim
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    Temperature Dependence of Dark Spot Diameters in GaN and AlGaN
    (Weinheim : Wiley-VCH, 2021) Netzel, Carsten; Knauer, Arne; Brunner, Frank; Mogilatenko, Anna; Weyers, Markus
    Threading dislocations in c-plane (Al,Ga)N layers are surrounded by areas with reduced light generation efficiency, called “dark spots.” These areas are observable in luminescence measurements with spatial resolution in the submicrometer range. Dark spots reduce the internal quantum efficiency in single layers and light-emitting devices. In cathodoluminescence measurements, the diameter of dark spots (full width at half maximum [FWHM]) is observed to be 200–250 nm for GaN. It decreases by 30–60% for AlxGa1−xN with x ≈ 0.5. Furthermore, the dark spot diameter increases with increasing temperature from 83 to 300 K in AlGaN, whereas it decreases in GaN. Emission energy mappings around dark spots become less smooth and show sharper features on submicrometer scales at low temperature for AlGaN and, on the contrary, at high temperature for GaN. It is concluded that charge carrier localization dominates the temperature dependence of dark spot diameters and of the emission energy distribution around threading dislocations in AlGaN, whereas the temperature-dependent excitation volume in cathodoluminescence and charge carrier diffusion limited by phonon scattering are the dominant effects in GaN. Consequently, with increasing temperature, nonradiative recombination related to threading dislocations extends to wider regions in AlGaN, whereas it becomes spatially limited in GaN.