abstract: This dissertation covers my doctoral research on the cathodoluminescence (CL) study of the optical properties of III-niride semiconductors. The first part of this thesis focuses on the optical properties of Mg-doped gallium nitride (GaN:Mg) epitaxial films. GaN is an emerging material for power electronics, especially for high power and high frequency applications. Compared to traditional Si-based devices, GaN-based devices offer superior breakdown properties, faster switching speed, and reduced system size. Some of the current device designs involve lateral p-n junctions which require selective-area doping. Dopant distribution in the selectively-doped regions is a critical issue that can impact the device performance. While most studies on Mg doping in GaN have been reported for epitaxial grown on flat c-plane substrates, questions arise regarding the Mg doping efficiency and uniformity in selectively-doped regions, where growth on surfaces etched away from the exact c-plane orientation is involved. Characterization of doping concentration distribution in lateral structures using secondary ion mass spectroscopy lacks the required spatial resolution. In this work, visualization of acceptor distribution in GaN:Mg epilayers grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) was achieved at sub-micron scale using CL imaging. This was enabled by establishing a correlation among the luminescence characteristics, acceptor concentration, and electrical conductivity of GaN:Mg epilayers. Non-uniformity in acceptor distribution has been observed in epilayers grown on mesa structures and on miscut substrates. It is shown that non-basal-plane surfaces, such as mesa sidewalls and surface step clusters, promotes lateral growth along the GaN basal planes with a reduced Mg doping efficiency. The influence of surface morphology on the Mg doping efficiency in GaN has been studied. The second part of this thesis focuses on the optical properties of InGaN for photovoltaic applications. The effects of thermal annealing and low energy electron beam irradiation (LEEBI) on the optical properties of MOCVD-grown In0.14Ga0.86N films were studied. A multi-fold increase in luminescence intensity was observed after 800 °C thermal annealing or LEEBI treatment. The mechanism leading to the luminescence intensity increase has been discussed. This study shows procedures that significantly improve the luminescence efficiency of InGaN, which is important for InGaN-based optoelectronic devices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Materials Science and Engineering 2020

Presented thesis is focused on the study of properties of Ga and GaN nanostructures on graphene. In the theoretical part of the thesis a problematics of graphene and GaN fabrication is discussed with a focus on the relation of Ga and GaN to graphene. The experimental part of the thesis deals with the depositions of Ga on transferred CVD-graphene on SiO2. The samples are analyzed by various methods (XPS, AFM, SEM, Raman spectroscopy, EDX). The properties of Ga on graphene are discussed with a focus on the surface enhanced Raman scattering effect. Furthermore, a deposition of Ga on exfoliated graphene and on graphene on a copper foil is described. GaN is fabricated by nitridation of the Ga structures on graphene. This process is illustrated by the XPS measurements of a distinct Ga peak and the graphene valence band during the process of nitridation.

High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) have long been studied for high frequency and high-power application. Among widely known high electron mobility transistors, AlGaN/GaN HEMTs are having the upper hand due to high electron mobility of the GaN channel. Over the times, issues like current collapse, gate leakage, self-heating and gate lag have questioned the performance and reliability of these devices. In the recent years, engineers have come up with newer architectures to address some of these issues. Inserting a high-k dielectric oxide layer in the gate stack proved to be an effective solution to mitigate gate leakage, reduce interfacial traps and improve optimal working conditions. This work aims to study the reliability aspect of these so-called metal-oxide-semiconductor high electron mobility transistors (MOS-HEMT) specifically, HfO2 and HfZrO2 MOS-HEMTs. It was found through numerical simulations that though HfO2 and HfZrO2 dielectrics were able to mitigate gate leakage current, they tend to accumulate more heat in the channel region with respect to the conventional silicon nitride (SiN) passivated counterparts. Moreover, few asymmetric structures were proposed where silicon nitride was placed in the dielectric layer along with HfO2/HfZrO2. In this study it was found that these asymmetric structures showed superior thermal performance while showing near-zero gate leakage current.

With experimental realization of micro-structures, the feasibility of achieving high brightness, low efficiency droop blue LED was implemented based on InGaN/GaN micro-LED-pillar design. A significantly high current density of 492 A/cm2 in a 20 μm diameter (D) micro-LED-pillar was achieved, compared to that of a 200 μm diameter LED (20 A/cm2), both at 10 V bias voltage. In addition, an increase in sustained quantum efficiency from 70.2% to 83.7% at high injection current density (200 A/cm2) was observed in micro-LED-pillars in conjunction with size reduction from 80 μm to 20 μm. A correlation between the strain relief and the electrical performance improvement was established for micro-LED-pillars with D < 50 μm, apart from current spreading effect. The degree of strain relief and its distribution were further studied in micro-LED-pillars with D ranging from 1 μm to 15 μm. Significant wavenumbers down-shifts for E2 and A1 Raman peaks, together with the blue shifted PL peak emission, were observed in as-prepared pillars, reflecting the degree of strain relief. A sharp transition from strained to relaxed epitaxy region was discernible from the competing E2 phonon peaks at 572 cm-1 and 568 cm-1, which were attributed to strain residue and strain relief, respectively. A uniform strain relief at the center of micro-pillars was achieved, i.e. merging of the competing phonon peaks, after Rapid Thermal Annealing (RTA) at 950℃ for 20 seconds, phenomenon of which was observed for the first time. The transition from maximum strain relief to a uniform strain relief was found along the narrow circumference (< 2.5 μm) of the pillars from the line-map of Raman spectroscopy. The extent of strain relief is also examined considering the height (L) of micro-LED-pillars fabricated using FIB micro-machining technique. The significant strain relief of up to 70% (from -1.4 GPa to -0.37 GPa), with a 71 meV PL peak blue shift, suggested that micro-LED-pillar with D < 3 μm and L > 3 μm in the array configuration would allow the building of practical devices. Overall, this work demonstrated a novel top-down approach to manufacture large effective-area, high brightness emitters for solid-state lighting applications.

Ternary III-nitride alloys have enabled the design of various devices ranging from optoelectronics to power electronics due to their tunable band gap. BxGa1-xN is a wide band gap semiconductor with applications in detecting devices, power electronics and light-emitting diodes. The band gap can be modulated by changing the Boron concentration. It can be grown by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition as a mixed thin film of wurtzite and zincblende structures. In this work, we investigate the structural and electronic properties of BxGa1-xN (x<0.2) by first-principles calculations for both the wurtzite and zincblende phases. The formation energies of Si and Mg impurities and of a Ga vacancy are also calculated. We find that the wurtzite structure is favored over the zincblende structure. Furthermore, the Si and Mg impurities have relatively low formation energies in their neutral state, which indicates compatibility with BxGa1-xN, while a Ga vacancy has very high formation energy, hence being less likely to form spontaneously. Moreover, in the charged states, the formation energy of Mg is reasonably low for most values of the Fermi level, while the formation energy of Si depends linearly on the Fermi level, indicating challenges in achieving n-type conductivity. For a Ga vacancy in a triple acceptor state, the formation energy is reasonably low close to the conduction band, therefore, Ga vacancies interfere with n-type conductivity.

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