Magnesium based gettering regions for gallium and nitrogen containing laser diode devices

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9502859-B1
Application number	US-201514593259-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 9, 2015
Priority date	May 9, 2013
Publication date	Nov 22, 2016
Grant date	Nov 22, 2016

Abstract

In an example, the present invention provides a gallium and nitrogen containing laser diode device. The device has a gallium and nitrogen containing substrate material comprising a surface region, which is configured on either a non-polar ({10-10}) crystal orientation or a semi-polar ({10-10} crystal orientation configured with an offcut at an angle toward or away from the [0001] direction). The device also has a GaN region formed overlying the surface region, an active region formed overlying the surface region, and a gettering region comprising a magnesium species overlying the surface region. The device has a p-type cladding region comprising an (InAl)GaN material doped with a plurality of magnesium species formed overlying the active region.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A gallium and nitrogen containing laser diode device, the device comprising:
a gallium and nitrogen containing material comprising a surface region, the surface region being configured on either a non-polar {10-10} crystal orientation or a semi-polar crystal orientation configured with an orientation of {10-10} with an offcut at an angle toward or away from the [0001] direction;
a gallium and nitrogen containing region formed overlying the surface region;
an active region formed overlying the surface region;
a gettering region comprising a magnesium species overlying the surface region; and
a p-type cladding region comprising an (InAl)GaN material doped with a plurality of magnesium species formed overlying the active region;
whereupon the gettering region is provided at a temperature of less than about 900° C.

2. The device of claim 1 , where the semipolar crystal orientation is selected from one of a {30-3-1} plane, a {30-31} plane, a{20-2-1} plane, a {20-21} plane, a {30-3-1} plane, a {30-32} plane, or an offcut from any one of these planes within +/−5 degrees toward an a-plane or a c-plane.

3. The device of claim 1 , further comprising an electron blocking region between the gettering region and the p-type cladding region.

4. The device of claim 3 , wherein the electron blocking region and the p-type cladding region are epitaxially grown at a temperature above about 900° C.

5. The device of claim 3 , wherein the electron blocking region and at least a portion of the p-type cladding region are epitaxially grown at a temperature above about 900° C. and the gettering region is provided at a temperature of less than about 850° C.

6. The device of claim 3 , wherein the electron blocking region is substantially free from magnesium doping.

7. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a barrier region between the active region and the gettering region.

8. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a separate confinement heterostructure region between the active region and the gettering region, wherein the separate confinement heterostructure region is configured to confine an optical mode; the separate confinement heterostructure comprising InGaN.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the p-type cladding region comprises a plurality of layers, each of the plurality of layers independently selected from a GaN layer, an AlGaN layer, and an InAlGaN layer, where in each of the plurality of layers is independently doped with a concentration of magnesium.

10. The device of claim 1 , wherein the gettering region comprises a magnesium species doped to increase incorporation of unintentionally incorporated magnesium from a first concentration to a second concentration.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the active region comprises InGaN quantum wells configured to emit in a blue 430 nm to 480 nm wavelength range or in a green 500 nm to 540 nm wavelength range.

12. The device of claim 1 , wherein the p-type cladding region comprises a single layer.

13. The device of claim 1 , wherein the p-type region comprises multiple regions.

14. The device of claim 1 , wherein the active region comprises one or more light emitting layers, each of the one or more lighting emitting layers being configured between a pair of barrier regions, each of the one or more lighting emitting layers having a thickness ranging from 2 nm to about 8 nm; and wherein each of the one or more barrier regions has a thickness ranging from 2 nm to 20 nm or from 2 nm to 4 nm or 4 to 20 nm.

15. The device of claim 1 , further comprising a GaN barrier region and wherein the p-type cladding region is a GaN p-cladding region substantially free from an aluminum bearing species.

16. The device of claim 1 , wherein the p-type cladding region is a GaN p-cladding doped with a Mg concentration of less than 2E19 cm −3 or less than about 5E18 cm −3 .

17. The device of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the p-type cladding region is epitaxially grown at a temperature above about 900° C.

18. The device of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the p-type cladding region is epitaxially grown at a temperature above about 900° C. and the gettering region is provided at a temperature of less than about 850° C.

19. The device of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the p-type cladding region is epitaxially grown at a temperature above about 950° C. and the gettering region is provided at a temperature of less than about 850° C.

20. The device of claim 1 , wherein at least a portion of the p-type cladding region is epitaxially grown at a temperature above 1,000° C. and the gettering region is provided at a temperature of less than about 850° C.

21. The device of claim 1 , wherein the gettering region comprises:
a region intentionally doped with Mg; and
a region unintentionally doped with Mg region wherein the unintentionally doped region is configured to incorporate residual Mg before formation of the p-type region.

22. The device of claim 1 , wherein the gettering region is characterized by a thickness from 2 nm to 50 nm.

23. The device of claim 1 , wherein the gettering region comprises a material selected from GaN, AlGaN, InAlGaN, and a combination of any of the foregoing.

24. The device of claim 1 , wherein the device is provided in an application selected from at least one of a laser display, medical, a light, or combinations thereof.

25. A method for manufacturing a gallium and nitrogen containing laser diode device, the method comprising:
providing a gallium and nitrogen containing substrate material comprising a surface region, the surface region being configured on either a non-polar {10-10} crystal orientation or a semi-polar crystal orientation configured with an orientation of {10-10} with an offcut at an angle toward or away from the [0001] direction;
forming a gallium and nitrogen containing region overlying the surface region;
forming an active region overlying the surface region;
forming a gettering region comprising a magnesium species overlying the surface region at a temperature of 900° C. and less; and
forming a p-type cladding region comprising an (InAl)GaN material doped with a plurality of magnesium species overlying the active region.

26. The method of claim 25 , wherein the semi-polar crystal orientation is selected from a {40-4-1} plane, a {40-41} plane, a {30-3-1} plane, a {30-31} plane, a {20-2-1} plane, a {20-21} plane, a {30-3-1} plane, a {30-32} plane, or an offcut from any one of these planes within +/−5 degrees toward an a-plane or a c-plane.

27. The method of claim 25 , further comprising forming an electron blocking region between the gettering region and the p-type cladding region.

28. The method of claim 27 , wherein the electron blocking region and the p-type cladding region are epitaxially grown at a temperature above about 900 C.

29. The method of claim 27 , wherein the electron blocking region and the p-type cladding region are epitaxially grown at a temperature above about 900° C. and the gettering region is provided at a temperature of less than about 850° C.

30. The method of claim 27 , wherein the electron blocking region is substantially free from magnesium doping.

31. The method of claim 25 , further comprising forming a barrier region between the active region and the gettering reg

Assignees

• Soraa Laser Diode Inc

Inventors

• Mclaurin Melvin
• Raring James W
• Elsass Christiane

Classifications

• H01S5/3063 Primary

  using Mg · CPC title

• H01S2301/173

  The laser chip comprising special buffer layers, e.g. dislocation prevention or reduction · CPC title

• H01S5/320275

  semi-polar orientation · CPC title

• H01S5/2009

  by using electron barrier layers · CPC title

• H01S5/32025

  non-polar orientation · CPC title