GaN-Al0.5NGa0.5N quantum dots deposited on (11-22) planes have been grown by combining Molecular Beam Epitaxy and Metal Organic Vapour Phase Epitaxy. This combination is interesting for realization of ultraviolet operation light emitting diodes, lasers andsingle photon sources,… (1,3) The growth of dots was achieved by MBE using ammonia as nitrogen precursor and growth interruption in ammonia less conditions to trigger corrugation of GaN and dot formation (4). The (11-22) GaN oriented peudosubstrate was realized by MOVPE starting from a M-plane oriented sapphire substrate. The orientation of the growth plane dictates in-plane anisotropies which are effectively found leading to a transition from isolated dots to nanochains - oriented along the <1-100> direction as evidenced from Atomic Force Microscopy features or optical properties: polarization rates and temperature dependent measurements of the radiative recombination process for instance(5). We here restrict to small size isolated quantum dots and present innovative optical properties among which are micro-photoluminescence data versus pump power, polarization of the emitted photons at different temperatures. We also analyse the photoluminescence decay times and model our finding in the context of the effective mass approximation. The crystal field splitting is measured in Al 0.5NGa 0.5N lattice-matched to (11-2) oriented GaN by polarized microphotoluminecence under high photo- injection conditions.

Time-resolved photoluminescence spectra of orange light emitting (Ga,In)N-based devices have been grown by metal-organic vapour phase epitaxy on C plane sapphire for indium compositions ranging up to 23 percents. The temperature dependent time resolved photoluminescence spectra collected through the 8K-300K range are found to exhibit behaviours that are found to be very similar to what is reported in literature in samples with different designs (well width, indium composition in the well layer). However, our quantum devices always exhibit a two-mode exponential decay with a long decay time about 4 to five times longer than the short one, which was not reported so far.The photoluminescence decay times are wavelength-dependent as always found for indium rich quantum well, a behaviour that is interpreted in terms of carrier localization in indium-rich regions of the alloy active layers. The spectral dependence of the decay time, which were fitted using sigmoidal function, give access to an average decay time, centred at a given energy, with a phenomenological broadening constant. The average splitting between characteristic energies for long and short decay times, the broadening constants both increase with the indium composition. Radiative and non-radiative recombination times are deduced in the whole temperature range. The average decay time increase exponentially with the product of the well width to indium composition. This quantity is found to be an excellent indicator of the device performance.

Optical properties of GaN/Al0.2Ga0.8N multiple quantum wells grown with semi-polar (10-11) orientation on patterned 7°-off Si (001) substrates have been investigated. Studies performed at 8 K reveal the in-plane anisotropic behavior of the QW photoluminescence (PL) intensity for this semi-polar orientation. The time resolved PL measurements were carried out in the temperature range from 8 to 295 K to deduce the effective recombination decay times, with respective radiative and non-radiative contributions. The non-radiative component remains relatively weak with increasing temperature, indicative of high crystalline quality. The radiative decay time is a consequence of contribution from both localized and free excitons. We report an effective density of interfacial defects of 2.3 × 1012 cm−2 and a radiative recombination time of τloc = 355 ps for the localized excitons. This latter value is significantly larger than those reported for the non-polar structures, which we attribute to the presence of a weak residual electric field in the semi-polar QW layers.

This book gives a survey of the current state of the art of a special class of nitrides semiconductors, Wurtzite Nitride and Oxide Semiconductors. It includes properties, growth and applications. Research in the area of nitrides semiconductors is still booming although some basic materials sciences issues were solved already about 20 years ago. With the advent of modern technologies and the successful growth of nitride substrates, these materials currently experience a second birth. Advanced new applications like light-emitters, including UV operating LEDs, normally on and normally off high frequency operating transistors are expected. With progress in clean room technology, advanced photonic and quantum optic applications are envisioned in a close future. This area of research is fascinating for researchers and students in materials science, electrical engineering, chemistry, electronics, physics and biophysics. This book aims to be the ad-hoc instrument to this active field of research.

Light-emitting devices based on high-Al content (Al,Ga)N suffer from high densities of dislocations or other point defects, counterbalanced by the carrier localization arising from disorder in the ternary alloy. One way to improve the internal quantum efficiency is the controlled Si-doping of AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN multi-quantum wells, which was assigned to the reduction of point defects by reduction of internal strains, for some ideal concentration of Si. Time-resolved photoluminescence (TR-PL) can be used [S. F. Chichibu et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 051902 (2011)] to try and correlate the observed PL time-decays with the density of defects, in relation with the nonradiative recombination probability of photoexcited carriers. We present TR-PL studies of MOVPE-grown Si-doped AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN multi-quantum wells with typical values of x=0.6 and y=0.7 and of AlxGa1-xN epilayers with x up to 0.86. High-Al content MQWs and epilayers exhibit similar bi-exponential PL decay dynamics, with the slower component rapidly quenched when T is increased. The fast decay component remains in the nanosecond range at all temperatures and the PL intensity loss is limited by carrier localization.

Diffusion lengths of photo-excited carriers along the c-direction were determined from photoluminescence (PL) measurements in p- and n-type GaN epitaxial layers grown on c-plane sapphire by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The investigated samples incorporate a 6 nm thick In0.15Ga0.85N active layer capped with either 500 nm p-GaN or 1300 nm n-GaN. The top GaN layers were etched in steps and PL from the InGaN active region and the underlying layers was monitored as a function of the top GaN thickness upon photogeneration near the surface region by above bandgap excitation. Taking into consideration the absorption in the active and underlying layers, the diffusion lengths at 295 K and at 15 K were measured to be about 92 +/- 7 nm and 68 +/- 7 nm for Mg-doped p-type GaN and 432 +/- 30 nm and 316 +/- 30 nm for unintentionally doped n-type GaN, respectively. Cross-sectional cathodoluminescence line-scan measurement was performed on a separate sample and the diffusion length in n-type GaN was measured to be 280 nm.

Al, Ga)N light emitting diodes (LEDs), emitting over a large spectral range from 360 nm (GaN) down to 210 nm (AlN), have been successfully fabricated over the last decade. Clear advantages compared to the traditional mercury lamp technology (e.g. compactness, low-power operation, lifetime) have been demonstrated. However, LED efficiencies still need to be improved. The main problems are related to the structural quality and the p-type doping efficiency of (Al, Ga) N. Among the current approaches, GaN nanostructures, which confine carriers along both the growth direction and the growth plane, are seen as a solution for improving the radiative recombination efficiency by strongly reducing the impact of surrounding defects. Our approach, based on a 2D - 3D growth mode transition in molecular beam epitaxy, can lead to the spontaneous formation of GaN nanostructures on (Al, Ga)N over a broad range of Al compositions. Furthermore, the versatility of the process makes it possible to fabricate nanostructures on both (0001) oriented "polar" and (11 (2) over bar 2) oriented "semipolar" materials. We show that the change in the crystal orientation has a strong impact on the morphological and optical properties of the nanostructures. The influence of growth conditions are also investigated by combining microscopy (SEM, TEM) and photoluminescence techniques. Finally, their potential as UV emitters will be discussed and the performances of GaN / (Al, Ga) N nanostructure-based LED demonstrators are presented.