Nanomaterials (Basel)
July 2023
Powerful emitters of ultraviolet C (UVC) light in the wavelength range of 230-280 nm are necessary for the development of effective and safe optical disinfection technologies, highly sensitive optical spectroscopy and non-line-of-sight optical communication. This review considers UVC emitters with electron-beam pumping of heterostructures with quantum wells in an (Al,Ga)N material system. The important advantages of these emitters are the absence of the critical problem of p-type doping and the possibility of achieving record (up to several tens of watts for peak values) output optical power values in the UVC range.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGaN/AlN heterostructures with thicknesses of one monolayer (ML) are currently considered to be the most promising material for creating UVC light-emitting devices. A unique functional property of these atomically thin quantum wells (QWs) is their ability to maintain stable excitons, resulting in a particularly high radiation yield at room temperature. However, the intrinsic properties of these excitons are substantially masked by the inhomogeneous broadening caused, in particular, by fluctuations in the QWs' thicknesses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis article describes GaN/AlN heterostructures for ultraviolet-C (UVC) emitters with multiple (up to 400 periods) two-dimensional (2D)-quantum disk/quantum well structures with the same GaN nominal thicknesses of 1.5 and 16 ML-thick AlN barrier layers, which were grown by plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy in a wide range of gallium and activated nitrogen flux ratios (Ga/N*) on -sapphire substrates. An increase in the Ga/N* ratio from 1.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNanomaterials (Basel)
May 2022
Semiconductor heterostructures form the basis of modern electronics and optoelectronics, and the study of physical phenomena in them, along with the development of technological methods for their manufacture, is actively carried out all over the world to ensure progress in the output parameters of devices [...
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMonolayer (ML)-scale GaN/AlN multiple quantum well (MQW) structures for electron-beam-pumped ultraviolet (UV) emitters are grown on -sapphire substrates by using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy under controllable metal-rich conditions, which provides the spiral growth of densely packed atomically smooth hillocks without metal droplets. These structures have ML-stepped terrace-like surface topology in the entire QW thickness range from 0.75-7 ML and absence of stress at the well thickness below 2 ML.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe present an extensive theoretical and experimental study to identify the effect on the Raman spectrum due to interface interdiffusion between GaN and AlN layers in short-period GaN/AlN superlattices (SLs). The Raman spectra for SLs with sharp interfaces and with different degree of interface diffusion are simulated by calculations and within the framework of the random-element isodisplacement model. The comparison of the results of theoretical calculations and experimental data obtained on PA MBE and MOVPE grown SLs, showed that the bands related to (LO) confined phonons are very sensitive to the degree of interface diffusion.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe report the results of experimental and theoretical studies of phonon modes in GaN/AlN superlattices (SLs) with a period of several atomic layers, grown by submonolayer digital plasma-assisted molecular-beam epitaxy, which have a great potential for use in quantum and stress engineering. Using detailed group-theoretical analysis, the genesis of the SL vibrational modes from the modes of bulk AlN and GaN crystals is established. calculations in the framework of the density functional theory, aimed at studying the phonon states, are performed for SLs with both equal and unequal layer thicknesses.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFQuasi-2D GaN layers inserted in an AlGaN matrix are proposed as a novel active region to develop a high-output-power UV light source. Such a structure is successfully achieved by precise control in molecular beam epitaxy and shows an amazing output power of ≈160 mW at 285 nm with a pulsed electron-beam excitation. This device is promising and competitive in non-line-of-sight communications or the sterilization field.
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