Ultra-wide-bandgap AlGaN homojunction tunnel diodes with negative differential resistance

Clinton, Evan A.; Engel, Zachary; Vadiee, Ehsan; Carpenter, Joe V.; Holman, Zachary C.; Doolittle, W. Alan

doi:10.1063/1.5113503

Ultra-wide-bandgap AlGaN homojunction tunnel diodes with negative differential resistance

Journal Article · Wed Aug 21 00:00:00 EDT 2019 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5113503· OSTI ID:1613607

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; ^[3]; Holman, Zachary C. ^[3]; Doolittle, W. Alan ^[2]

Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States); DOE/OSTI
Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

The power efficiencies of state-of-the-art Al_xGa_1-xN deep-ultraviolet (UV) emitters operating in the <300 nm wavelength region are currently limited to a few percent in part due to limitations in the series and contact resistance which result in excessive drive voltages. Al_xGa_1-xN tunnel contacts and tunnel junctions in deep-UV devices are a promising route toward increasing these efficiencies by improving the contact resistances, hole injection, and reducing optical absorption by removing undesirable p-GaN contact layers. However, due to doping inefficiencies, standalone tunnel diodes have not been realized in the form of homojunction Al_xGa_1-xN. In this work, Al_xGa_1-xN (0.19 ≤ x ≤ 0.58) homojunction tunnel diodes are fabricated with high reverse bias current densities, and one device with x = 0.19 demonstrates a negative differential resistance at ~2.4 V. Al_xGa_1-xN p++/n++/n tunnel diodes are compared to reference p++/i/n diodes to provide clarity about the role of tunneling conduction vs leakage conduction. Transmission electron microscopy verifies that heavy doping does not result in visible defects such as Mg precipitates and allows for subsequent epitaxy, critical for buried tunnel junction structures. Increasing the bandgap energy of Al_xGa_1-xN for higher Al content tunnel junctions decreases the tunnel current, but still allows sufficient conduction necessary for future improvements in deep UV emitter efficiencies.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Arizona State Univ., Tempe, AZ (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Grant/Contract Number:: AR0000470

OSTI ID:: 1613607

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1558133

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 8 Vol. 115; ISSN 0003-6951

Publisher:: American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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