Role of Strain-Induced Microscale Compositional Pulling on Optical Properties of High Al Content AlGaN Quantum Wells for Deep-Ultraviolet LED

A systematic study was carried out for strain-induced microscale compositional pulling effect on the structural and optical properties of high Al content AlGaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs). Investigations reveal that a large tensile strain is introduced during the epitaxial growth of AlGaN MQWs, due to the grain boundary formation, coalescence and growth. The presence of this tensile strain results in the microscale inhomogeneous compositional pulling and Ga segregation, which is further confirmed by the lower formation enthalpy of Ga atom than Al atom on AlGaN slab using first principle simulations. The strain-induced microscale compositional pulling leads to an asymmetrical feature of emission spectra and local variation in emission energy of AlGaN MQWs. Because of a stronger three-dimensional carrier localization, the area of Ga segregation shows a higher emission efficiency compared with the intrinsic area of MQWs, which is benefit for fabricating efficient AlGaN-based deep-ultraviolet light-emitting diode.

Improvement of Crystal Quality of AlN Films with Different Polarities by Annealing at High Temperature

High-quality AlN film is a key factor affecting the performance of deep-ultraviolet optoelectronic devices. In this work, high-temperature annealing technology in a nitrogen atmosphere was used to improve the quality of AlN films with different polarities grown by magnetron sputtering. After annealing at 1400–1650 °C, the crystal quality of the AlN films was improved. However, there was a gap between the quality of non-polar and polar films. In addition, compared with the semi-polar film, the quality of the non-polar film was more easily improved by annealing. The anisotropy of both the semi-polar and non-polar films decreased with increasing annealing temperature. The results of Raman spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the annihilation of impurities and grain boundaries during the annealing process were responsible for the improvement of crystal quality and the differences between the films with different polarities.

Investigation on Light Extraction Behavior of Surface Plasmon-Coupled Deep-Ultraviolet LED in Different Emission Directions

The light extraction behavior of an AlGaN-based deep-ultraviolet LED covered with Al nanoparticles (NPs) is investigated by three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulation. For the transmission spectra of s- and p-polarizations in different emission directions, the position of maximum transmittance can be changed from (θ = 0°, λ = 273 nm) to (θ = 0°, λ = 286 nm) by increasing the diameter of Al NPs from 40 nm to 80 nm. In the direction that is greater than the critical angle, the transmittance of s-polarization is very small due to the strong absorption of Al NPs, while the transmittance spectrum of p-polarization can be observed obviously for the 80 nm Al NPs structure. For a ~284 nm AlGaN-based LED with surface plasmon (SP) coupling, although the luminous efficiency is significantly improved due to the improvement of the radiation recombination rate as compared with the conventional LED, the light extraction efficiency (LEE) is lower than 2.61% of the conventional LED without considering the lateral surface extraction and bottom reflection. The LEE is not greater than ~0.98% (~2.12%) for an SP coupling LED with 40 nm (80 nm) Al NPs. The lower LEE can be attributed to the strong absorption of Al NPs.

Room temperature fabrication and post-annealing treatment of amorphous Ga2O3 photodetectors for deep-ultraviolet light detection

This work fabricates deep-ultraviolet (DUV) photodetectors (PDs) with a metal-semiconductor-metal structure based on radio-frequency sputtered amorphous Ga2O3 films at room temperature. The Ga2O3-based PD exhibits a low dark current of 1.41×10-11 A, good responsivity of 1.77 A/W and a fast-rise response time of 114 ms. A series of annealing treatments with different atmospheres have been found effective to reduce the oxygen vacancy concentration, exhibiting a trade-off effect between the responsivity and response time. These results demonstrate a cost-effective room-temperature approach for fabricating amorphous Ga2O3-based PDs and develop possible post-synthetic methods for tuning the PD performance.

Detection and localization of calcium oxalate in kidney using synchrotron deep ultraviolet fluorescence microscopy

Renal oxalosis is a rare cause of renal failure whose diagnosis can be challenging. Synchrotron deep ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence was assayed to improve oxalosis detection on kidney biopsies spatial resolution and sensitivity compared with the Fourier transform infrared microspectroscopy gold standard. The fluorescence spectrum of synthetic mono-, di- and tri-hydrated calcium oxalate was investigated using a microspectrometer coupled to the synchrotron UV beamline DISCO, Synchrotron SOLEIL, France. The obtained spectra were used to detect oxalocalcic crystals in a case control study of 42 human kidney biopsies including 19 renal oxalosis due to primary (PHO, n = 11) and secondary hyperoxaluria (SHO, n = 8), seven samples from PHO patients who received combined kidney and liver transplants, and 16 controls. For all oxalocalcic hydrates samples, a fluorescence signal is detected at 420 nm. These spectra were used to identify standard oxalocalcic crystals in patients with PHO or SHO. They also revealed micrometric crystallites as well as non-aggregated oxalate accumulation in tubular cells. A nine-points histological score was established for the diagnosis of renal oxalosis with 100% specificity (76–100) and a 73% sensitivity (43–90). Oxalate tubular accumulation and higher histological score were correlated to lower estimated glomerular filtration rate and higher urinary oxalate over creatinine ratio.