Design and demonstration of ultra-wide bandgap AlGaN tunnel junctions

Zhang, Yuewei; Krishnamoorthy, Sriram; Akyol, Fatih; Allerman, Andrew A.; Moseley, Michael W.; Armstrong, Andrew M.; Rajan, Siddharth

doi:10.1063/1.4962900

Title: Design and demonstration of ultra-wide bandgap AlGaN tunnel junctions

Journal Article · Mon Sep 19 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4962900· OSTI ID:1333538

^[1]; Krishnamoorthy, Sriram ^[1]; Akyol, Fatih ^[1]; Allerman, Andrew A. ^[2]; Moseley, Michael W. ^[2]; Armstrong, Andrew M. ^[2]; Rajan, Siddharth ^[1]

The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)
Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Ultra violet light emitting diodes (UV LEDs) face critical limitations in both the injection efficiency and the light extraction efficiency due to the resistive and absorbing p-type contact layers. In this work, we investigate the design and application of polarization engineered tunnel junctions for ultra-wide bandgap AlGaN (Al mole fraction >50%) materials towards highly efficient UV LEDs. We demonstrate that polarization-induced three dimensional charge is beneficial in reducing tunneling barriers especially for high composition AlGaN tunnel junctions. In addition, the design of graded tunnel junction structures could lead to low tunneling resistance below 10^–3 Ω cm² and low voltage consumption below 1 V (at 1 kA/cm²) for high composition AlGaN tunnel junctions. Experimental demonstration of 292 nm emission was achieved through non-equilibrium hole injection into wide bandgap materials with bandgap energy larger than 4.7 eV, and detailed modeling of tunnel junctions shows that they can be engineered to have low resistance and can enable efficient emitters in the UV-C wavelength range.

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Research Organization:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

OSTI ID:: 1333538

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1328480

Report Number(s):: SAND-2016-9079J; APPLAB; 647379; TRN: US1700180

Journal Information:: Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 12; ISSN 0003-6951

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

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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Cited by: 23 works

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Title: Design and demonstration of ultra-wide bandgap AlGaN tunnel junctions

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