III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice Nanostructures
Abstract The III-Nitride digital alloy (DA) is comprehensively studied as a short-period superlattice nanostructure consisting of ultra-thin III-Nitride epitaxial layers. By stacking the ultra-thin III-Nitride epitaxial layers periodically, these nanostructures are expected to have comparable optoel...
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doaj-93502ba047904cff91237a72a7a92ee62020-12-08T01:31:51ZengNature Publishing GroupScientific Reports2045-23222017-07-01711810.1038/s41598-017-06889-3III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice NanostructuresWei Sun0Chee-Keong Tan1Nelson Tansu2Center for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lehigh UniversityCenter for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lehigh UniversityCenter for Photonics and Nanoelectronics, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Lehigh UniversityAbstract The III-Nitride digital alloy (DA) is comprehensively studied as a short-period superlattice nanostructure consisting of ultra-thin III-Nitride epitaxial layers. By stacking the ultra-thin III-Nitride epitaxial layers periodically, these nanostructures are expected to have comparable optoelectronic properties as the conventional III-Nitride alloys. Here we carried out numerical studies on the InGaN DA showing the tunable optoelectronic properties of the III-Nitride DA. Our study shows that the energy gap of the InGaN DA can be tuned from ~0.63 eV up to ~2.4 eV, where the thicknesses and the thickness ratio of each GaN and InN ultra-thin binary layers within the DA structure are the key factors for tuning bandgap. Correspondingly, the absorption spectra of the InGaN DA yield broad wavelength tunability which is comparable to that of bulk InGaN ternary alloy. In addition, our investigation also reveals that the electron-hole wavefunction overlaps are remarkably large in the InGaN DA structure despite the existence of strain effect and build-in polarization field. Our findings point out the potential of III-Nitride DA as an artificially engineered nanostructure for optoelectronic device applications.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06889-3 |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Wei Sun Chee-Keong Tan Nelson Tansu |
spellingShingle |
Wei Sun Chee-Keong Tan Nelson Tansu III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice Nanostructures Scientific Reports |
author_facet |
Wei Sun Chee-Keong Tan Nelson Tansu |
author_sort |
Wei Sun |
title |
III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice Nanostructures |
title_short |
III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice Nanostructures |
title_full |
III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice Nanostructures |
title_fullStr |
III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice Nanostructures |
title_full_unstemmed |
III-Nitride Digital Alloy: Electronics and Optoelectronics Properties of the InN/GaN Ultra-Short Period Superlattice Nanostructures |
title_sort |
iii-nitride digital alloy: electronics and optoelectronics properties of the inn/gan ultra-short period superlattice nanostructures |
publisher |
Nature Publishing Group |
series |
Scientific Reports |
issn |
2045-2322 |
publishDate |
2017-07-01 |
description |
Abstract The III-Nitride digital alloy (DA) is comprehensively studied as a short-period superlattice nanostructure consisting of ultra-thin III-Nitride epitaxial layers. By stacking the ultra-thin III-Nitride epitaxial layers periodically, these nanostructures are expected to have comparable optoelectronic properties as the conventional III-Nitride alloys. Here we carried out numerical studies on the InGaN DA showing the tunable optoelectronic properties of the III-Nitride DA. Our study shows that the energy gap of the InGaN DA can be tuned from ~0.63 eV up to ~2.4 eV, where the thicknesses and the thickness ratio of each GaN and InN ultra-thin binary layers within the DA structure are the key factors for tuning bandgap. Correspondingly, the absorption spectra of the InGaN DA yield broad wavelength tunability which is comparable to that of bulk InGaN ternary alloy. In addition, our investigation also reveals that the electron-hole wavefunction overlaps are remarkably large in the InGaN DA structure despite the existence of strain effect and build-in polarization field. Our findings point out the potential of III-Nitride DA as an artificially engineered nanostructure for optoelectronic device applications. |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-06889-3 |
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