P-side layers for short wavelength light emitters

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9401452-B2
Application number	US-201213619598-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 14, 2012
Priority date	Sep 14, 2012
Publication date	Jul 26, 2016
Grant date	Jul 26, 2016

Abstract

A light emitting device includes a p-side heterostructure having a short period superlattice (SPSL) formed of alternating layers of Al xhigh Ga 1-xhigh N doped with a p-type dopant and Al xlow Ga 1-xlow N doped with the p-type dopant, where x low ≦x high ≦0.9. Each layer of the SPSL has a thickness of less than or equal to about six bi-layers of AlGaN.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A light emitting device, comprising:
a p-side heterostructure comprising a short period superlattice (SPSL) including alternating layers of Al xhigh Ga 1-xhigh N doped with a p-type dopant and Al xlow Ga 1-xlow N doped with the p-type dopant, where x low ≦x high ≦0.9 and each layer of the SPSL has a thickness of less than or equal to six bi-layers of AlGaN, each bi-layer being one layer of Al and Ga atoms and one layer of N atoms and having a thickness of 0.25 nm;
an n-side heterostructure; and
an active region configured to emit light disposed between the SPSL and the n-side heterostructure, wherein
a difference between x low and xhigh in the alternating layers causes modulation of a valance band edge energy in the SPSL, and
the modulation of the valence band edge energy in the SPSL is at least an acceptor energy level of the p-type dopant.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein each Al xhigh Ga 1-xhigh N layer has a thickness, T high , and each Al xlow Ga 1-xlow N layer has a thickness T low , wherein T high and T low are in a range of 0.7 nm to 1.3 nm.

3. The device of claim 1 , wherein the SPSL has a total thickness of greater than 200 nm and less than 450 nm.

4. The device of claim 1 , wherein x high −x low is greater than or equal to 0.25.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein an average Al composition in the SPSL is 0.60.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein x low is 0.44 and x high is 0.75.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein a resistivity of the SPSL changes by less than 50 Ω-cm over a temperature range of 400 K to 100 K.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein a resistivity of the SPSL is less than 10 Ω-cm at room temperature.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the n-side heterostructure, active region, and p-side heterostructure are grown on at least one of a substrate comprising one or more of GaN, AlN, SiC, sapphire, Si, GaAs, ZnO, a group III-N alloy, and a template comprising a group III-N material.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the n-side heterostructure, active region, and p-side heterostructure are epitaxially grown on a bulk AlN substrate.

11. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a substrate of sapphire, a group-III nitride, SiC, or ZnO, wherein the n-side heterostructure, active region, and p-side heterostructure are epitaxially grown on an (0001) or (000 1 ) surface of the substrate.

12. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a substrate of a group-III nitride, SiC, or ZnO, wherein the n-side heterostructure, active region and p-side heterostructure are epitaxially grown on a semi-polar facet of the substrate.

13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the modulation of the valence band energy edge is equal to a sum of a valence band offset between the alternating layers in the SPSL and a change in potential within a layer of the SPSL arising from polarization charges at interfaces of the alternating layers.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein:
E gap is a difference between a valence band energy and a conduction band energy; and
the valence band offset is equal to 0.3{E gap (Al xhigh Ga 1-xhigh N)−E gap (Al xlow Ga 1-xlow N)},
and wherein:
P x is a total polarization of Al x Ga 1-x N, ∈ x is a dielectric constant of Al x Ga 1-x N; and the change in potential within a layer of the SPSL arising from polarization charges at interfaces is equal to T high T low (P xlow −P xhigh )/(T high ∈ xlow +T low ∈ xhigh ).

15. The device of claim 1 , wherein the p-type dopant is Mg and the modulation of the valence band edge is greater than 0.35 eV.

16. The device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a metallic p-contact; and
a p-contact layer disposed between the p-side heterostructure and the p-contact, the p-contact layer comprising Al z Ga 1-z N and having a thickness, D, where z varies over the thickness of the p-contact layer.

17. The device of claim 16 , wherein:
z is a function of distance, d, over the thickness of the p-contact layer, wherein the thickness of the p-contact layer extends from d=0 at an interface between the p-side heterostructure and the p-contact layer to d=D at an interface between the p-contact layer and the p-contact;
the function z decreases linearly with slope g 1 in a first region extending from d=0 to d=d mid , wherein d mid is a point within the p-contact layer between d=0 and d=D; and
the function z decreases linearly with slope g 2 in a second region extending from d=d mid to d=D, wherein a magnitude of g 2 is greater than a magnitude of g 1 .

18. The device of claim 17 , wherein a thickness of the SPSL is less than 260 nm and d mid is greater than 60 nm.

19. The device of claim 16 , wherein:
d is distance in the p-contact layer;
d=0 at an interface between the p-side heterostructure and the p-contact layer;
d=D at an interface between the p-contact layer and the p-contact;
d W is a point within the p-contact layer between d=0 and d=D;
z is a function of the distance, d, over the thickness of the p-contact layer, wherein the thickness of the p-contact layer extends from d=0 at the interface between the p-side heterostructure and the p-contact layer to d=D at the interface between the p-contact layer and the p-contact; and
the p-contact layer includes:
a first portion in which the function z is concave downward between d=0 and d=d W ; and

a second portion in which the function z is concave upward from d=d W to d=D.

20. The device of claim 1 , wherein a lateral resistivity of the SPSL increases by less than a factor of 5 as the temperature T increases from 1000/10 Kelvins to 1000/3 Kelvins.

Assignees

• Northrup John E
• Cheng Bowen
• Chua Christopher L
• Wunderer Thomas
• Johnson Noble M
• Yang Zhihong
• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc

Inventors

• Northrup John E
• Cheng Bowen
• Chua Christopher L
• Wunderer Thomas
• Johnson Noble M
• Yang Zhihong

Classifications

• H10P14/3416

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P14/3254

  Graded layers · CPC title

• H10P14/3252

  Alternating layers, e.g. superlattice · CPC title

• H10P14/3216

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P14/2901

  Materials · CPC title