High efficiency light emitters with reduced polarization-induced charges

• US 6,515,313 B1
• Filed: 11/28/2000
• Issued: 02/04/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: CREE Incorporated (Wolfspeed, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Cree Lighting Company (Ideal Industries Incorporated)
• Inventors: Ibbetson, James, Thibeault, Brian
• Primary Examiner(s): Cao, Phat X.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wille, Douglas A.
• Application Number:
  US09/728,788
• Time in Patent Office: 798 Days
• Field of Search: 257/103
• US Class Current: 257/103
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/16 with a particular crystal structure or orientation, e.g. polycrystalline, amorphous or porous
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/32 containing nitrogen

Abstract

Naturally occurring polarization-induced electric fields in a semiconductor light emitter with crystal layers grown along a polar direction are reduced, canceled or reversed to improve the emitter'"'"'s operating efficiency and carrier confinement. This is accomplished by reducing differences in the material compositions of adjacent crystal layers, grading one or more layers to generate space charges and quasi-fields that oppose polarization-induced charges, incorporating various impurities into the semiconductor that ionize into a charge state opposite to the polarization induced charges, inverting the sequence of charged atomic layers, inverting the growth sequence of n- and p-type layers in the device, employing a multilayer emission system instead of a uniform active region and/or changing the in-plane lattice constant of the material.

Claims

1. An optical emitter, comprising:

an n-type contact layer;

a p-type contact layer;

an active light emitting region sandwiched between cladding layers, said active region and cladding layers between said n-type and p-type contact layers;

dipoles across said active region, said dipoles formed from interfacial charge sheets along the interfaces between said active region and said cladding layers, said dipoles generating a polarization induced field across said active region that reduces the light emitting efficiency of said optical emitter; and

a means for at least decreasing some of the efficiency reducing effect of said polarization-induced field across said active region.

2. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises the addition of dopant impurities in at least one of said cladding layers to reduce said polarization induced field by canceling at least some of the charge at said interfacial charge sheet adjacent to said doped cladding layer.

3. The optical emitter of claim 2, wherein said interfacial charge sheets comprise a positive and negative interfacial charge sheet, wherein a negative dopant impurity is added to said cladding layer adjacent to said positive interfacial charge sheet.

4. The optical emitter of claim 2, wherein said interfacial charge sheets comprise a positive and negative interfacial charge sheet, wherein a positive dopant is added to said cladding layer adjacent to said negative interfacial charge sheet.

5. The optical emitter of claim 3, wherein said negative dopant is Mg.

6. The optical emitter of claim 4, wherein said positive dopant is Si.

7. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises an intermediate composition in at least one of said cladding layers with respect to said active region and said contact layer adjacent to said intermediate composition cladding layer, said intermediate composition cladding layer reducing its adjacent said interfacial charge sheet.

8. The optical emitter of claim 7, wherein said active region is In_0.20Ga_0.80N, said intermediate composition cladding layer is In_0.05Ga_0.95N, and said adjacent contact layer is GaN.

9. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises said active region being InGaN and the addition of In to at least one of said cladding layers such that at least one cladding layer comprises Al_xIn_yGa₁₋

x−

yN where 0≦

x≦

1 and 0≦

y≦

1, the presence of In in said cladding layer counteracting the effect of Al in generating an interfacial charge sheet adjacent to said cladding layer.

10. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises a gradient in the composition in at least one of said cladding layers, said gradient generating a space charge to oppose the interfacial charge sheet at the interface between said graded composition cladding layer and said active region.

11. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises a gradient in the composition of said active region, said gradient producing a quasi-field to counter the impact of said interfacial charge sheets and polarization induced electric field.

12. The optical emitter of claim 11, wherein said gradient is continuous or discrete.

13. The optical emitter of claim 11, wherein said active region is graded with Indium from 5 to 10% with an average gradient rate of 1%/nm.

14. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises said active layer having multiple active regions alternating with cladding layers, said cladding layers confining injection in said multiple active regions and opposing the polarization induced fields of said active regions.

15. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises inverting said active region atomic dipoles by reversing the growth order of the atomic layers that make up the compounds in said active region, resulting in screening of said interfacial charge sheets prior to turn on of said optical emitter.

16. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect comprises said p-type contact layer preceding said n-type contact layer in growth order, resulting in screening of said interfacial charge sheets at turn on of said optical emitter.

17. The optical emitter of claim 1, wherein said means for decreasing the efficiency reducing effect includes one of said layers beneath said active region having an in-plane lattice constant that reduces or reverses the strain experienced by said active region.

18. The optical emitter of claim 17, grown on a buffer, wherein said buffer has an in-plane lattice constant close in value to the in-plane constant of said active region.

19. The optical emitter of claim 17, wherein said n-type contact layer is below said active region, said n-type contact layer having an in-plane lattice constant close in value to the in-plane lattice constant of said active region.

20. The optical emitter of claim 17, wherein one of said cladding layers is below said active region, said lower cladding layer having an in-plane lattice constant close in value to the in-plane constant of said active region.

21. An optical emitter grown along a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers whose material compositions vary in said polar direction, said plurality of layers comprising at least an active region sandwiched between two cladding layers, said varied composition generating oppositely charged interfacial charge sheets at the interfaces between said active region and cladding layer;

at least one of said cladding layers incorporating dopant impurities that ionize into a charged state opposite to the sheet charge at the interface between said doped cladding layer and said active region to cancel at least some of said sheet charge.

22. The optical emitter of claim 21, wherein said doped cladding layer is adjacent to the positively charged of said oppositely charged interfacial charge sheets, said dopant impurity being negatively charged.

23. The optical emitter of claim 22, wherein said doped cladding layer is adjacent to the negatively charged of said oppositely charged interfacial charge sheets, said dopant impurity being positively charged.

24. An optical emitter grown normal to a crystal polar direction, comprising:

n- and p-type contact layers;

an active region sandwiched between two cladding layers, said active region and cladding layers between said n- and p-type contact layers;

interfacial sheet charges at the interfaces between said active region and cladding layers;

at least one of said cladding layers having an intermediate material composition relative to said active region and adjacent n- or p-type layer, said intermediate composition reducing the charge of the sheet charge adjacent to said doped cladding layer.

25. The optical emitter of claim 24, wherein said at least one layer is an Al_xIn_yGa₁₋

x−

yN cladding layer, where 0≦

x≦

1 and 0≦

y≦

1.

26. The optical emitter of claim 24, wherein said active region is In_0.20Ga_0.80N, said cladding layer is In_0.05Ga_0.95N, and said adjacent contact layer is GaN.

27. An optical emitter grown normal to a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers comprising at least an active region sandwiched between two cladding layers, said layers having material compositions that vary in said polar direction to generate a polarization-induced charge concentration in said active region;

said active layer comprised of a ternary compound material and at least one of said cladding layer comprised of a quaternary material that results in a reduced polarization induces charge concentration at the interface between said active region and said quaternary cladding layer.

28. The optical emitter of claim 27, wherein said active layer comprises InGaN and at least one of said cladding layers comprises AlInGaN.

29. An optical emitter grown normal to a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers comprising at least an active region sandwiched between two cladding layers, said layers having material compositions that vary in said polar direction to generate a polarization-induced charge concentration in said active region;

at least one of said cladding layers having a composition that is graded to generate a space charge over a volume of said grade that opposes said charge concentration.

30. The optical emitter of claim 29 wherein said graded cladding layer comprises Al_xIn_yGa₁₋

x−

yN, where 0≦

x≦

1 and 0≦

y≦

1.

31. An optical emitter grown along a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers, comprising at least an active region sandwiched between two cladding layers, said layers having material compositions that vary in said polar direction;

at least one of said layers having its composition graded to generate a space charge over a volume of said grade that allows dopant impurities to be set back from an adjacent layer.

32. The optical emitter of claim 31, wherein said graded layer comprises Al_xIn_yGa₁₋

x−

yN, where 0≦

x≦

1 and 0≦

y≦

1.

33. An optical emitter grown along a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers comprising at least an active region sandwiched between two cladding layer, said layers having material compositions that vary in said polar direction to generate a polarization-induced electric field in said active region;

said active region having a composition that is graded to generate a quasi-field that opposes said polarization-induced electric field.

34. The optical emitter of claim 33, wherein said grading generates gradients in the energy bands of said active region to produce said quasi-field.

35. The optical emitter of claim 33, wherein said active region is comprised of In_yAl_xGa₁₋

x−

yN, where 0≦

y≦

1 and 0≦

x≦

1.

36. An optical emitter grown along a crystal polar direction, comprising:

at least one each of p-type and n-type crystal layers whose material compositions vary in said polar direction to generate a polarization-induced charge concentration in at least one of said layers the adversely effects the performance of said emitter;

a plurality of crystal layers between said p-type and n-type crystal layers, said plurality of layers including at least an active region sandwiched between two cladding layers;

said p-type layer preceding said n-type layer in growth sequence to reverse the effect of said charge concentration on said optical emitters performance.

37. An optical emitter grown normal to a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers including at least an active region sandwiched between two cladding layers, said layers having compositions that vary in said polar direction to generate a polarization-induced electric fields in at least one of said layers;

one of said layers comprising a multilayer active region that comprises alternating optical emitting and non-emitting layers, with said non-emitting layers confining injected carriers in said emitting layers and opposing said electric fields.

38. The optical emitter of claim 37, wherein the material composition of at least one of said non-emitting layers is graded to create a quasi-field opposing said electric fields.

39. The optical emitter of claim 37, wherein the material composition of at least one of said emitting layers is graded to create a quasi-field opposing said electric fields.

40. The optical emitter of claim 38, wherein the material composition of at least one of said non-emitting layers is graded to create a quasi-field opposing said electric fields.

41. The optical emitter of claim 37, wherein at least one of said non-emitting layers includes dopant impurities to provide space charge that will oppose said electric fields.

42. An optical emitter grown normal to a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers whose material compositions vary in said polar direction to generate polarization-induced electric fields in at least one of said layers;

at least one of said layers being an active region;

at least a second one of said being below said active region and being at least partially strain-relaxed such that the in-plane lattice constant of said layer below said active region is close to the unstrained in-plane lattice constant of said active region, thus reducing, eliminating, or reversing said electric field in said active region.

43. An optical emitter grown normal to a crystal polar direction, comprising:

a plurality of crystal layers whose material compositions vary in said polar direction to generate polarization-induced electric fields in at least one of said layers;

at least one of said layers being an active region;

said active region grown thick enough so that the material in the active region is at least partially strain-relaxed, thereby reducing said electric field in at least said active region.