Mg doped Al-rich AlGaN epilayers with Al content as high as 0.7 is needed for obtaining deep UV LEDs with wavelengths shorter than 300 nm. This is one of the most crucial layers in deep UV LEDs and plays an important role for electron blocking and affects the hole injection into the active layer. Not only is this layer critical for the efficiency of deep UV LEDs, it could also introduce long wavelength emission components in UV LEDs. However, it is difficult to obtain high quality Mg doped Al-rich AlGaN epilayers and the resistivity of the grown films is usually extremely high. We report here on the growth, optical and electrical properties of Mg doped Al_0.7Ga_0.3N epilayers. Mg doped Al_0.7Ga_0.3N epilayers of high crystalline and optical qualities have been achieved after optimizing MOCVD growth conditions. Moreover, we have obtained a resistivity around 12,000 Ω cm (near the theoretical limit with Mg doping) at room temperature and confirmed p-type conduction at elevated temperatures for optimized Mg-doped Al_0.7Ga_0.3N epilayers. The growth conditions of the optimized epilayer have been incorporated into deep UV LEDs with wavelength shorter than 300 nm. A significant enhancement in power output with a reduction in forward voltage, V_f, was obtained by employing this optimized Mg doped Al_0.7Ga_0.3N epilayer as an electron blocking layer. The long wavelength emission components in deep UV LEDs were also significantly suppressed. The fundamental limit for achieving p-type Al-rich AlGaN alloys is also discussed.

Date Published: 20 October 2004
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 5530, Fourth International Conference on Solid State Lighting, (20 October 2004); doi: 10.1117/12.566192

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5530:
Fourth International Conference on Solid State Lighting
Ian T. Ferguson; Nadarajah Narendran; Steven P. DenBaars; John C. Carrano, Editor(s)