Effect of 3C-SiC intermediate layer in GaN—based light emitting diodes grown on Si(111) substrate

• DOI: 10.1007/s13391-017-6124-7
• Publication Date: 2016-12-21T19:37:17Z
• Authors: Youhua Zhu; Meiyu Wang; Yi Li; Shuxin Tan; Honghai Deng; Xinglong Guo; Haihong Yin; Takashi Egawa
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 7. Clean energy; 01 natural sciences

GaN-based light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on Si(111) substrate with and without 3C-SiC intermediate layer (IL). Structural property has been characterized by means of atomic force microscope, X-ray diffraction, and transmission electron microscope measurements. It has been revealed that a significant improvement in crystalline quality of GaN and superlattice epitaxial layers can be achieved by using 3C-SiC as IL. Regarding of electrical and optical characteristics, it is clearly observed that the LEDs with its IL have a smaller leakage current and higher light output power comparing with the LEDs without IL. The better performance of LEDs using 3C-SiC IL can be contributed to both of the improvements in epitaxial layers quality and light extraction efficiency. As a consequence, in terms of optical property, a double enhancement of the light output power and external quantum efficiency has been realized.