Curvature Correction of FWHM in the X-Ray Rocking Curve of Bent Heteroepitaxial Films

A method for accurate determination of the curvature radius of semiconductor thin films is proposed. The curvature-induced broadening of the x-ray rocking curve （XRC） of a heteroepitaxially grown layer can be determined if the dependence of the full width at half maximum （FWHM） of XRC is measured as a function of the width of incident x-ray beam. It is found that the curvature radii of two GaN films grown on a sapphire wafer are different when they are grown under similar MOCVD conditions but have different values of layer thickness. At the same time, the dislocation-induced broadening of XRC and thus the dislocation density of the epitaxial film can be well calculated after the curvature correction.     

Effect of surface treatment of GaN based light emitting diode wafers on the leakage current of light emitting diode devices

To form low-resistance Ohmic contact to p-type GaN, InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well light emitting diode wafers are treated with boiled aqua regia prior to Ni/Au (5~nm/5~nm) film deposition. The surface morphology of wafers and the current--voltage characteristics of fabricated light emitting diode devices are investigated. It is shown that surface treatment with boiled aqua regia could effectively remove oxide from the surface of the p-GaN layer, and reveal defect-pits whose density is almost the same as the screw dislocation density estimated by x-ray rocking curve measurement. It suggests that the metal atoms of the Ni/Au transparent electrode of light emitting diode devices may diffuse into the p-GaN layer along threading dislocation lines and form additional leakage current channels. Therefore, the surface treatment time with boiled aqua regia should not be too long so as to avoid the increase of threading dislocation-induced leakage current and the degradation of electrical properties of light emitting diodes.     

Simulation of the light extraction efficiency of nanostructure light-emitting diodes

The light extraction efficiencies have been calculated for various InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well nanostructure light-emitting diodes including nanopillar,nanorough of P-GaN surface,coreshell and nano-interlayer structure.From the calculated results we can see that the light extraction efficiency is remarkably improved in the nanostructures,especially those with an InGaN or AlGaN nano-interlayer.With a 420-nm luminescence wavelength,the light extraction efficiency can reach as high as 65% for the InGaN or AlGaN nano-interlayer structure with appropriate In or Al content while only 26% for the planar structure.