Cutting Edge
CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF

InGaN-BASED LASER DIODES
Shuji NAKAMURAUV InGaN and GaN single-quantum well structure light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were grown on epitaxially laterally overgrown GaN (ELOG) and sapphire substrates. When the emission wavelength of UV InGaN LEDs was shorter than 380 nm,
the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of the LED on ELOG was much higher than that on sapphire, but only for highcurrent operation. At low-current operation, both LEDs had the same EQE. When the active layer was GaN, the EQE ofthe LED on sapphire was much lower than that on ELOG even for low- and high-current operations due to the lack of
localized energy states formed by fluctuations in indium composition. In order to improve the lifetime of the laser diodes(LD), ELOG had to be used because the operating current density of the LD is much higher than that of the LED. A violet
InGaN multi-quantum-well/GaN/AlGaN separate confinement-heterostructure LD was grown on ELOG on sapphire. The
LDs with cleaved mirror facets showed an output power as high as 40 mW under room-temperature continuous-wave(CW) operation. The stable fundamental transverse mode was observed at an output power of up to 40 mW. The
estimated lifetimes of the LDs at a constant output power of 10 mW and 30 mW were more than 2,000 and 500 hours
respectively, during CW operation at an ambient temperature of 60°C.

1. Introduction

Department of Research and Development,
Nichia Chemical Industries, Ltd.,
491 Oka, Kaminaka, Anan, Tokushima 774, Japan
E-mail: shuji@nichia.co.jp

The brightness and durability of light-emitting
diodes (LEDs) makes them ideal for displays, while
semiconductor laser diodes (LDs) have been used asa light source in applications ranging from opticalcommunications systems to compact disk players.
These applications have been limited, however, by alack of materials that can emit blue light efficiently.
Full-color displays, for example, require at least three
primary colors, usually red, green and blue, if they
are to produce every visible color. Such a combination is also needed to make a white-light emitting
device that would be more durable and consume lesspower than conventional incandescent bulbs or fluorescent lamps. A shorter wavelength means that thelight can be focused more sharply, which in turn increases the storage capacity of magnetic and opticaldisks. Digital versatile disks (DVDs), which came onto
the market in 1996, rely on red AlInGaP semiconduc-

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CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF

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tor lasers and have a data capacity of about
4.7 gigabytes (Gbytes), compared to 0.65
Gbytes for compact disks (CDs) which use infrared lasers. By moving to violet wavelengths
using III-V nitride-based semiconductors, the capacity could be increased to more than 15
Gbytes. The violet III-V nitride-based LDs could
also improve the performance of laser displays,
printers and undersea optical communications.
III-V nitride-based semiconductors have a direct band gap that is suitable for blue lightemitting devices: the band gap energy of aluminum gallium indium nitride (AlGaInN) varies
between 6.2 and 2.0 eV, depending on its composition, at room temperature (RT). Thus, byusing these semiconductors, red to ultravioletemitting devices can be fabricated.
The first breakthrough for III-V nitridebased semiconductors was the use of AlN1,2) or
GaN3,4) nucleation layers for the GaN growth.
Using these nucleation layers it became possible to obtain high-quality GaN films with amirror-like flat surface, a low residual carrier
concentration, a high mobility and a strong
photoluminescence (PL) intensity in spite of alarge lattice mismatch of 15% between GaN
and the sapphire substrate. The second big
breakthrough for III-V nitride-based LEDs and
LDs was not only that p-type GaN was obtained
but that the reason why it had not been obtained before was also clarified.
For the LEDs and LDs, a p-n junction isused to inject holes and electrons into the active layers from the p-type layer and the n-typelayer, respectively. Thus, both p-type and n-typeconductivity control is necessitated to fabricate
these devices. It was easy to obtain n-type GaN
from the beginning. However, it was impossible to obtain p-type GaN films for a longtime.5,6) Unavailability of p-type GaN films had
prevented the realization of light emitting diodes from III-V nitrides, such as blue LEDs andLDs. Since the 1970s, many people had tried
to make p-type GaN by doping with, for ex-

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ample Zn,7) Be, 8) Mg, 9) and Cd10) into GaN as
an acceptor impurity.
However, the reason why a low-resistivity
p-type GaN could not be obtained when GaN
was doped with impurities was not clear. In
1989, Amano et al. 11) obtained p-type GaN
films using Mg-doping as an acceptor impurity
followed by a post low-energy electron-beamirradiation (LEEBI) treatment using a
metalorganic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD) growth method. After the growth,
LEEBI treatment was performed for Mg-doped
GaN films to obtain a low-resistivity p-type GaN
film. The effect of the LEEBI treatment was considered to be Mg displacement due to the energy of the electron beam irradiation. No one
except Amano et al. had succeeded in obtaining p-type GaN until 1992 because the mechanism of the LEEBI treatment was not understood exactly.
In 1992, Nakamura et al. 12,13) obtained
p-type GaN films using nitrogen post-ambient
thermal annealing for Mg-doped GaN insteadof the LEEBI treatment. Before thermal annealing, the resistivity of Mg-doped GaN films wasapproximately 1x106 Ωcm. After thermal annealing at temperatures above 700°C the resistivity became 2 Ωcm.12) Low-resistivity p-type
GaN films, which were obtained by N2-ambient thermal annealing, showed a resistivity ashigh as 1x106 Ωcm after NH3 ambient thermal
annealing at temperatures above 600°C.13) They
then proposed that atomic hydrogen producedby NH 3 dissociation at temperatures above
400°C was related to the acceptor compensation mechanism.13) A hydrogenation process
whereby acceptor-H neutral complexes wereformed in p-type GaN films was proposed13):
the formation of acceptor-H neutral complexescauses acceptor compensation. This hydrogenation process has now been accepted as theacceptor compensation mechanism of p-type
III-V nitride-based semiconductor by many researchers.14-18) Theoretical calculations of this hy-

drogen passivation were undertaken by
Neugebauer and Van de Walle.18) Thus, in 1992,
the 20-year mystery of p-type GaN was resolved.
The third big breakthrough was that highquality InGaN film became available. As mentioned above, the InGaN active layer is used
for all of the III-V nitride based LEDs and LDs toemit red to uv light. Thus, InGaN is a very important compound semiconductor among IIIV nitride compounds because the InGaN active layer emits light by the recombination of
the injected electrons and holes into the InGaN.
In spite of its importance, nobody had succeeded in obtaining high-quality InGaN films
which could emit a strong band-to-band emission at RT by optical pumping or current injection.19-21)
In 1992, Nakamura and Mukai succeededin growing high quality InGaN films for the firsttime, films which emitted a strong band to band
emission from uv to green, by changing the In
content of the InGaN using a novel two-flow
MOCVD method.22) Finally, Nakamura et al.23)
grew an InGaN multiple quantum well (MQW)
structure and confirmed an enhanced strong
PL intensity from the quantized energy levelsof the InGaN well layer with a thickness of 25µm. The addition of a small amount of indium
into the GaN was very important in obtaining
a strong band to band emission because GaN
without the indium could not emit a strong
band to band emission at RT. This reason is considered to be related to deep localized energy
states.24-28)
Using the above-mentioned major breakthrough techniques, in 1994 Nakamura et al.
developed the first blue InGaN/AlGaN double
heterostructure LEDs 29) and then developed
blue/green InGaN quantum well (QW) structure LEDs in 1995.30) Then, ultraviolet (UV)/amber LEDs31,32) and the first demonstration of RT
violet laser light emissions in InGaN/GaN/
AlGaN-based heterostructures under pulsed op-

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eration were achieved.33) Since Nakamura et al.
report of pulsed operation, many groups havereported pulsed operation of LDs using thesame structure. 34-40) Then, the latest results
showed that the lifetime became as long as
1,00041) and 10,000 hours42) under RT continuous-wave (CW) operation. Also, high power LDs
were fabricated using epitaxially lateral overgrown GaN (ELOG)43) and GaN substrates.44)
Then, at last, Nakamura et al.45) succeeded in
making the first commercially available products from violet InGaN-based LDs in February
1999.
All of these light-emitting devices use an
InGaN active layer instead of a GaN active layer;
because it is difficult to fabricate a highly efficient light-emitting device using a GaN active
layer, the reason for this is still not well known.
Also, the InGaN active layer in these LEDs and
LDs includes a large number of threading dislocations (TDs) from 1x108 to 1x1012 cm-2 originating from the interface between GaN andthe sapphire substrate due to a large lattice mismatch of 15 %.46,24) The TDs are considered to
be formed as a result of a complex set of interactions including the interface energy, thenucleation density, and island coalescence.47)
In spite of these large numbers of dislocations,the efficiency of the InGaN-based LEDs and LDs
is much higher than that of the conventional
III-V compound semiconductor (AlGaAs and
AlInGaP)-based LEDs and LDs. In many conventional optoelectronic devices, the device performance has been limited by the control ofboth point defects and structural defects inthese materials. However, the most recent reports suggest that III-V nitride-based devices areless sensitive to dislocations than conventional
III-V semiconductors.
Numerous studies have investigated theorigin of these defects,47) and their effects on
the structural,49,50) optical,51,52) electronic,53,54)
and morphological properties 47,55-57) of
heteroepitaxial GaN layers. Rosner et al.52) char-acterized the correlation between TDs as observed by transmission electron microscopy(TEM), surface morphology as observed byatomic force microscopy (AFM) and wavelength-resolved cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging. The dark areas in the CL images wereregions of the film where minority carriers weredepleted due to the high nonradiative recombination velocity at these dislocations. Sugahara
et al.58) observed the TD at the same location inn-type GaN films using plan-view TEM and CL
images to study the TDs. There was a clear oneto-one correspondence between the dark spots
observed in the CL images and the dislocations
in TEM images, indicating that the dislocations
are nonradiative recombination centers. The minority carrier (hole) diffusion length was estimated to be approximately 50 nm by the analysis of the CL dark spots. Chichibu et al.59) studied the emission mechanisms of GaN and InGaN
quantum wells (QWs) by comparing their optical properties as a function of TD density, which
was controlled by a lateral epitaxial overgrowth(LEO) technique. PL intensity was slightly
strengthened by reducing TD density from
1x1010 cm-2 to nearly zero (less than 1x106 cm-2).
Also, the major PL decay time was independent of the TD density.
These results suggested that the emission
mechanisms are unaffected by TDs. TDs are
considered to simply reduce the net volume oflight-emitting area. The effect is less pronounced in InGaN QWs, where carriers are effectively localized at a certain potential minimum caused by In composition fluctuations in
the QWs to form quantized excitons,24-28) before being trapped in nonradiative pathways
at TDs, resulting in a pronounced slow decay
time (1-40 ns). The depth of these localizedenergy states with a small In composition fluctuation is enhanced by the large band gap bowing of the InGaN.60) Assuming that the lateralspacing of the effective bandgap (potential)
minimum determines the carrier diffusion

length in InGaN, the carrier diffusion length wasestimated to be less than 60 nm.28) Absence ofchange in the Stokes-like shift due to reduction of TD density revealed that the effective
bandgap fluctuation in InGaN QWs was notdue to a phase separation initiated by TDs.61, 62)
Epitaxially laterally overgrown GaN (ELOG)on sapphire was developed recently to reduce
the number of TDs in GaN epitaxial layers.44,63,64)
Using the ELOG, the number of TDs was reduced significantly in the GaN grown on a SiO2
stripe mask. The blue InGaN single-quantumwell (SQW) structure LEDs were fabricated on
the ELOG to study the role of dislocations.65)
The output power of blue LEDs grown on the
ELOG was almost the same as that grown directly on sapphire substrates at a forward current from 0 to 60 mA in spite of a large difference of TD density between both LEDs.13) To
explain the high efficiency and long lifetime of
InGaN-based LEDs grown on sapphire, theexistence of localized energy states formed by
In composition fluctuations of InGaN layer was
proposed.24-28) For InGaN-based LDs, however,
the TD density had to be decreased to lengthen
the lifetime by using the ELOG. For InGaNbased LEDs, the lifetime of the LEDs is morethan 100,000 hours in spite of the large number of dislocations.
This difference in lifetime-behavior between LDs and LEDs is probably caused by thedifference in the operating current density inthe two devices. The operating current densityof LDs is about one order higher than that ofLEDs. In order to study the role of dislocationsin InGaN and GaN layers further, UV InGaN and
GaN SQW-structure LEDs were fabricated on
ELOG and sapphire substrates. We call these,
UV InGaN and GaN SQW-structure LEDs, UV
InGaN and GaN LEDs respectively, for simplicity. The performance of current InGaN-based
LDs is also described here.

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CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF

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1.2(a) UV InGaN LED on ELOG
Relative Intensity (arb. units)

Relative Intensity (arb. units)

1.2
1.0

I f = 100mA
0.8
I f = 20mA
0.6

I f = 0.2mA

0.4
0.2
0.0
330

350

370

390

410

430

(b) UV InGaN LED on sapphire

1.0
I f = 100mA
0.8
I f = 20mA
0.6

I f = 0.2mA

0.4
0.2
0.0
330

350

Wavelength (nm)

370

390

410

430

Wavelength (nm)Fig. 1
Emission spectra of UV InGaN LEDs on (a) ELOG and (b) sapphire
substrates at various forward currents at RT.

2. UV InGaN and GaN LEDs
grown on ELOG
III-V nitride films were grown using thetwo-flow metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) method, the details of whichhave been described previously.3,4) First, selectively grown on a 2µm-thick GaN layer grown
on a (0001) C-face sapphire substrate. The
0.1µm-thick silicon dioxide (SiO2) mask was patterned to form 4µm-wide stripe windows_ witha periodicity of 12 µm in the GaN <1100> direction. Following the 15µm-thick GaN growthon the SiO2 mask pattern, the coalescence ofthe selectively grown GaN allowed the formation of a flat GaN surface over the entire substrate. The coalesced GaN was designated theELOG.44,63,64)
We examined the defect density by planview transmission electron microscopy (TEM)
observation of the surface of ELOG substrates.
The number of dislocations on the SiO2 maskarea was close to zero and that on the window
area was approximately 2x107/cm2.44) This ELOG
was the same as that used to fabricate blue
SQW LEDs previously. 65) After obtaining a
15µm-thick ELOG substrate, UV InGaN and
GaN LEDs were grown on the substrate.31,66)
The growth conditions of each layer are de-

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scribed elsewhere.3) The LED structure consistsof a 1.5µm-thick undoped GaN layer, a 2.4µmthick n-type GaN:Si layer, a 0.2µm-thickundoped GaN layer (current spreading layer),a 400Å-thick n-type AlGaN:Si, a 50Å-thickundoped InGaN or GaN active layer, a 600Åthick p-type Al0.2Ga0.8N:Mg layer and a 0.1µmthick p-type GaN:Mg layer. The structure ofthese LEDs is almost the same as that of previous UV InGaN LEDs.31,66) The In composition of
the InGaN well layer was close to zero for UV
LEDs.31,66)
For comparison, LEDs of the same structure of LEDs were grown directly on sapphire
substrate. The fabrication of LED chips (350µm
x 350µm) was accomplished as follows: thesurface of the p-type GaN layer was partially
etched until the n-type GaN layer was exposed;
next, a Ni/Au contact was evaporated onto thep-type GaN layer and a Ti/Al contact on to then-type GaN layer. The characteristics of the LEDs
were measured under a direct current (DC) at
room temperature.
Figure 1 shows the emission spectra of UVInGaN LEDs on ELOG and sapphire substrates
a t v a r i o u s c u r re n t s a t R T. T h e p e a kwavelengthof both LEDs is around 380 nm. The
large spectrum width is due mainly to fluctua-

tions in indium composition in the InGaN welllayer.24-28) This means that the degree of fluctuations is the same in both LEDs in spite of alarge difference in the TD density. Thus, the Incomposition fluctuations are not related to theTDs. In both spectra, a small blue-shift is observed due to the band-filling effect of the localized energy states formed by In composition fluctuations.24-28) However, the degree of
blue-shift is relatively small due to the small In
composition fluctuations that resulted from thesmall In composition in the InGaN well-layer.
The ELOG and GaN on sapphire had averagedislocation densities of 7x106/cm2 and 1x1010/
cm2 respectively. Here, the average dislocation
density of the ELOG on sapphire was obtainedby dividing the dislocation density of 2x107/cm2
on the window region by the ratio of (stripe
periodicity of 12µm) / (window width of 4µm)
because the dislocation density on the SiO2
stripe region was almost zero. The size of the
LED chip is as large as 350 µm x 350 µm. Each
LED chip includes many window and SiO2 stripe
regions. Therefore, we used an average dislocation density for the ELOG on sapphire.
Figure 2 shows the external quantum efficiency (EQE) of UV InGaN and GaN LEDs as afunction of forward current. From this figure,

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Recently, many groups have reported thatthe quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) resulting from the piezoelectric field due to strain
determines the emission mechanism of InGaNor GaN-based LEDs.68-71) This field, if sufficiently
strong, will induce a spatial separation of theelectron and hole wave functions in the well.
Then, the wave function overlap decreases andthe inter-band recombination rate is reduced.
It is difficult to explain the results in Fig. 2, by
QCSE67): that is to say, the difference in the
behaviour of UV InGaN and GaN LEDs, using
UV InGaN LEDs on sapphire and ELOG havethe same efficiency at low currents. However,
the efficiency of UV GaN LED on sapphire ismuch lower than that on ELOG even at low
currents. Considering the strain in the well-layer,
QCSE should be almost the same for all of these
LEDs. The results can be explained only by the
localized energy states formed by In composition fluctuations as mentioned above, and not
by QCSE.
Figure 3 shows EQE as a function of theemission wavelength of UV/blue/green InGaN
LEDs with different In compositions. EQE isExternal Quantum Efficiency (%)

12
InGaN LED on ELOG
108InGaN LED on sapphire

64

GaN LED on ELOG
GaN LED on sapphire

2
0
0.1

1

10

100

Forward Current (mA)

Fig. 2EQE of UV InGaN and GaN LEDs as a function of forward current.

12
External Quantum Efficiency (%)

the EQE of UV InGaN LED on sapphire is almost the same as that on ELOG at low currents below 0.4 mA. Thus, the carriers are easily captured by localized energy states formed
by In composition fluctuations at low currents,
and radiatively recombine before they are captured by nonradiative recombination centersformed by a large number of dislocations.67)
With increasing current, some carriers can overflow from the localized energy states due to asmall In composition fluctuation of UV InGaN
LEDs, and reach nonradiative recombination
centers. As a result, the efficiency of UV InGaN
LEDs on sapphire decreases at high currents.
By reducing the dislocation density using ELOG,UV InGaN LEDs can emit a stronger power output even at high currents. On the other hand,the EQE of UV GaN LED on sapphire is lower
than that on ELOG even at low currents because there are no localized energy states
formed by In composition fluctuations. It is only
by reducing the dislocation density, that the EQEof UV GaN LEDs can be increased using ELOG,
as shown in Fig. 2.67)

10

LED on ELOG8
LED on sapphire

6
4
2
0
300

350

400

450

500

550

Wavelength (nm)Fig. 3
EQE as a function of emission wavelength of UV/blue/green InGaN LEDs
with different In compositions.

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CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF

InGaN-BASED LASER DIODESIn composition fluctuation of InxGa1-xN1) X is small

ElectronHole2) X is large

Electron

PhotonHole

Fig. 4Model of localized energy states formed by In composition fluctuations. (a) When the degree of In composition
fluctuations is small, carriers easily overflow the localized states with increasing current. (a) When the degreeof In composition fluctuations is large, carriers are still confined even at high current operation.

highest at a wavelength in the blue region due
to a large number of deep localized energy
states formed by large fluctuations in indium
composition. At wavelengths in the blue andgreen regions, there was no difference in EQE
between LEDs on ELOG and sapphire despite alarge difference in the dislocation density between them.65) However, UV LEDs with an emission wavelength shorter than 380 nm exhibit adifferent behavior: EQE becomes much lower
when the LED was fabricated on sapphire due
to a large number of dislocations. When theemission wavelength of UV LEDs with an active layer of GaN is 360 nm, the EQE of GaN
LEDs on ELOG is two times higher than that on

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sapphire. These results can be explained by only
using the localized energy states formed by Incomposition fluctuations in the InGaN welllayer, as mentioned in respect of Fig. 2. Whenelectrons and holes are injected into the InGaN
active layer of the LEDs, they are captured by
the localized energy states before they are captured by the nonradiative recombination centers caused by a large number of threading dislocations. At these large localized energy states,
localized excitons with a relatively high binding energy due to a quantum-well structure areformed for radiative recombination. When the
In composition of the InGaN active layer is small,such as for UV LEDs, the In composition fluc-tuations become much smaller.
When electrons and holes are injected into
this InGaN well-layer with a small In composition fluctuation, some of the injected carriers
overflow from the localized energy states withincreasing current and reach nonradiative recombination centers formed by a large number of dislocations. Then, the EQE becomes
lower with increasing current, as shown in Figs.
2 and 3. Without In in the active layer, whichmeans the GaN active layer, there are no In composition fluctuations to cause the formation of
the localized energy states in the InGaN active
layer. In this case, EQE is small even at low currents. However, EQE increases dramatically by
reducing the number of dislocations using
ELOG, as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, because thenumber of nonradiative recombination centers
is decreased by reducing the number of dislocation densities. When the emission wavelength is shorter than 370 nm, EQE decreases
dramatically, due mainly to the self-absorptionof p- and n-GaN contact layers.
Taking QCSE into consideration in Fig. 3,
it is difficult to explain why EQE gradually decreases with decreasing emission wavelengthof InGaN LEDs from 470 nm to 370 nm in spiteof decreasing the strain in the InGaN well-layer.
These results can be explained only by the localized energy states formed by In composition fluctuations. The In composition of the
InGaN well- layer decreases with decreasing
emission wavelength of LEDs. This means thatthe degree of In composition fluctuation becomes much smaller with decreasing emission
wavelength of LEDs. Then, some of the carriers injected into the InGaN well layer can overflow from the localized energy states due to asmall number of shallow localized energy states,
and then reach nonradiative recombination
centers formed by a large number of dislocations, as shown in Fig. 4.
Figure 4 shows the schematic model of
localized energy states formed by In composition fluctuations in the InGaN well layer. Thus,
EQE becomes smaller when the emission wave-

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p-GaNP-AlGaN/GaN MD-SLS
cladding layerp-electrode(Ni/Au)

p-GaN guiding layer
p-AlGaN capping layer
InGaN MQW active layern-electrode(Ti/Al)

n-GaN guiding layer
SiO2n-AlGaN/GaN MD-SLS
cladding layer
ELOG
GaN buffer layer
Sapphire substrate

Fig. 5Structure of InGaN-MQW/GaN/AlGaN SCH laser diodes.

length becomes shorter. When the emission
wavelength exceeds the blue region, EQE also
decreases, as shown in Fig. 3, due to the poor
crystal quality of the InGaN layer: it is difficult
to grow an InGaN layer with a high In-content
due to the phase separation of InGaN during
growth.72)

3. Violet InGaN-MQW/GaN/
AlGaN SCH LDs
Even if InGaN active layers are used forLEDs and LDs, with increasing current, somecarriers can overflow from the localized energy
states due to a small In composition fluctuation of UV InGaN LEDs and LDs, and reachnonradiative recombination centers, as mentioned above. As a result, the efficiency of UVInGaN LEDs and LDs on sapphire decreases athigh current operation. The operating current
density of the LDs (2-5 kA/cm2) is much higher(more than 10 times) higher than that of LEDs
(0.04 kA/cm2). Thus, under laser operation,
many carriers can overflow from the localizedenergy states, and reach nonradiative recombination centers formed by a large number of
TDs when the LDs were fabricated directly onsapphire substrate.67) Through this nonradiative
recombination of the carriers, the internal lossof the cavity of the LDs is increased, and thethreshold current density of the LDs is increased.

67)

As a result, the lifetime of the LDs was shortened to around 300 hours.73,74) Thus, only by
reducing the dislocation density using ELOG,
can the lifetime of InGaN-based LDs be lengthened by reducing the threshold currents.67)
Here, the present performance of InGaN-MQW/
GaN/AlGaN SCH LDs grown on ELOG is described.
On the above-mentioned ELOG substrate,
the laser structure was grown as shown in Fig.
5. The details of the InGaN-MQW/GaN/AlGaNSCH laser structure are described in other papers.3,41-45) The surface of the p-type GaN layer
was partially etched until the n-type GaN layer
and p-type Al0.15Ga0.85N/GaN MD-SLS cladding

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CURRENT STATUS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS OF

InGaN-BASED LASER DIODES

645

RT CW Operation
40
5
35
4

30
25

3
20
15

Voltage (V)Output Power (mW)layer were exposed to form the ridge-geometry LDs. The stripe width was 2 µm and thecavity length was 600 µm. The region of theridge-geometry LD of 2 µm x 600 µm wasformed on the laterally overgrown region of
the GaN on SiO2 stripe-shaped mask. A laser
cavity _was formed by cleaving the facets alongthe {1100} face of the LD grown on the ELOG.
A facet coating consisting of two pairs of quarter-wave TiO2/SiO2 dielectric multilayers wasformed on one side of the facets. The output
power of the LD was measured from an uncoated facet. The electrical characteristics of theLDs fabricated in this way were measured under a direct current (DC).
Figure 6 shows the voltage-current (V-I)
characteristics and the light output power per
uncoated cleaved facet of the LD as a function

2

10
1
5
0

0
0

20

40

60

80

Forward Current (mA)
Fig. 6.
Typical L-I and V-I characteristics of InGaN-MQW/GaN/AlGaN SCH LDs measured
under CW operation at RT.

5.45

12

CW Operation
5.40
Tc =
20˚C
40˚C
60˚C
80˚C

8
6

5.35

In (Ith)Output Power (mW)

10

5.30

4

5.25

2

5.20

0
0

20

40

60

80

5.15
280

Forward Current (mA)

Fig. 7.
L-I curves of InGaN-MQW/GaN/AlGaN SCH LDs at various
ambient temperatures.

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T0 = 213K

300

320

Temperature (K)Fig. 8.
Threshold current of Ith(T) as a function of the ambient
temperature.

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340

= I 0exp(T/T 0), was estimated to be 213 K as
shown in Fig. 8. Figure 8 shows the ln(Ith(T)) asa function of temperature. Here, I0 is a constant, T is the absolute temperature and Ith(T) is
the threshold current. The value of this characteristics temperature was the highest one everobtained in our group. The typical value of thecharacteristic temperature was around 150 K.
The measurement of the far-field patterns(FFPs) was performed, as shown in Fig. 9. At
an output power of 30 mW, the FFP in the direction parallel (X) to the epitaxial layers collapsed to 9.7°; and the FFP extended to 24.9 °in the perpendicular direction (Y). The aspectratio was 2.6. This value is relatively small andis desirable for practical applications to condense a laser beam to a small spot size efficiently using collecting lens.
Next, the emission spectra of the LDs were
measured under RT-CW operation, as shownin Fig.10. An optical spectrum analyzer(ADVANTEST Q8347), which utilizes a Fouriertransform spectrometer with a Michelson interferometer, was used to measure the spectra

Relative Intensity (arb. units)

Aspect Ratio = 2.6
FWHM(X) = 9.7˚
FWHM(Y) = 24.9˚
Po = 30mW

X

Y

-60

-40

-20

0

20

40

60

Angle (degrees)Fig. 9.
FFP of InGaN-MQW/GaN/AlGaN SCH LDs in the planes
parallel (X) and perpendicular (Y) to the junction at an
output power of 30 mW under RT-CW operation.

RT CW Operation
Relative Intensity (a. u.)of the forward DC current (L-I) at RT. No stimulated emission was observed up to a thresholdcurrent of 43 mA, which corresponds to a2
threshold current density of 3.6 kA/cm . The
threshold voltage was 4.3 V. The output powerof the LDs was as high as 40 mW at an operating current of 90 mA. At an output power ofup to 40 mW, no kink was observed in the L-I
curve because the transverse mode was stable
at a fundamental transverse mode with a small
ridge width of 2 µm.75) The slope efficiency wasas high as 1.0 W/A.
The temperature dependence of the L-I
curves of the LDs was measured under CW operation at temperatures between 20°C and
80°C, as shown in Fig.7. The threshold current
increased gradually with increasing temperature. The characteristic temperature T0, which
was used to express the temperature dependence of the threshold current in the form Ith(T)

50mW

30mW

10mW

3mW
407

408

409

410

Wavelength (nm)Fig. 10.
Laser emission spectra measured under RT-CW operation at output powers of 3
mW, 10 mW, 30 mW and 50 mW.

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Emission Wavelength (nm)408

CW Operation

407
406
405
404
403

0.06nm/˚C
402
401

0

20

40

60

80

Case Temperature (˚C)
Fig. 11.
Temperature dependence of the peak emission wavelength of
three LDs under CW operation at an output power of 5 mW.

90
80
Operating Current (mA)of the LDs with a resolution of 0.001 nm. At
output powers of 3 mW and 10 mW, singlemode laser emissions were observed at wavelengths of 408.1 nm and 408.2 nm. At output
powers of 30 mW and 50 mW, multimode laser emissions were observed at wavelengths of
408.7 nm and 409.1 nm. Figure 11 shows thetemperature dependence of the peak emission
wavelength of three LDs under CW operation
at an output power of 5 mW. During this measurement, the LDs were placed on a Peltier-type
cooler to maintain the temperatures of the LDs
between 10°C and 70°C. The average wavelength drift caused by the temperature change
was estimated from this figureto be 0.06nm/K.
Figure 12 shows the results of a lifetime
test of CW-operated LDs carried out at an ambient temperature of 60°C, in which the operating current is shown as a function of time
under a constant output power of 10 mW controlled using an autopower controller (APC).
After 78 hours of operation, only small degradation was observed. The degradation speed
was defined to be dI/dt (mA/40 hours), where I
is the operating current of the LDs and t is thetime. Using this degradation speed, the estimated lifetime was determined to be the time
when the operating current became 1.5 times
the initial operating current of the LDs. The lifetime was estimated to be more than 2,000
hours under these conditions. For the application of writing DVDs and hard disk drives(HDDs), a high power of 30 mW is required.
Figure 13 shows the results of a lifetime test of
CW-operated LDs carried out at an ambient
temperature of 60°C under a constant output
power of 30 mW. In this case, the lifetime wasestimated to be approximately 500 hours under the high-power of 30 mW and high-ambient-temperature of 60°C.

70
60
APC
60˚C
10mW

50
40
30
20

Estimated Lifetime = 2000hours

10
0

0

20

40

60

80

100

Time (hours)
Fig. 12.
Operating current of InGaN-MQW/GaN/AlGaN SCH LDs as afunction of time under a constant output power of 5 mW at an
ambient temperature of 50(C controlled using an autopower
controller.

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4. Conclusions
UV InGaN and GaN LEDs were grown on
ELOG and sapphire substrates. When the emission wavelength of InGaN LEDs was shorter
than 380 nm, EQE of the InGaN LED on ELO
was much higher than that on sapphire at highcurrents. At low currents, both LEDs had thesame EQE. When the active layer was GaN, EQEof the LED on sapphire was relatively low, bothat low and high currents, due to the lack of
localized energy states formed by In composition fluctuations. When the emission wavelength was in the blue and green regions, EQE
was almost the same between LEDs on ELOG
and sapphire due to a large number of deep
localized energy states formed by large In com-position fluctuations. EQE gradually decreases
with decreasing emission wavelength of InGaN
LEDs from 470 nm to 370 nm in spite of decreasing the strain in the InGaN well layer. These
results cannot be explained by QCSE.
Only the localized energy states formed
by In composition fluctuations can explain theseresults. The operating current of the LD is muchhigher than that of LEDs. Thus, under the operating conditions of the laser diodes, carriers
injected into InGaN well layers easily overflow
from the localized energy states, and reachnonradiative recombination centers formed bya large number of TDs. Thus, in order to improve the lifetime of the LD, the TD had to be
reduced using ELOG substrate. InGaN-MQW/

GaN/AlGaN SCH LDs were fabricated on the
ELOG. The LDs with cleaved mirror facets
showed an output power as high as 40 mW
under RT-CW operation with a stable fundamental transverse mode. The lifetime of the LDs
at a constant output power of 30 mW was approximately 500 hours under CW operation at
an ambient temperature of 60°C. High powerLDs with an output power of 30 mW and a
lifetime of 3,000 hours will be available soon
because rate of progress in improvement of
the lifetime is so fast.

Operating Current (mA)

120
100
80
APC
60˚C
30mW

60
40

Estimated Lifetime = 500hours

20
0

0

20

40

60

80

100

Time (hours)
Fig. 13.
Operating current of InGaN-MQW/GaN/AlGaN SCH LDs as afunction of time under a constant output power of 30 mW at an
ambient temperature of 60(C controlled using an autopower
controller.

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