III-nitrides: Growth, characterization, and properties

During the last few years the developments in the field of III-nitrides have been spectacular. High quality epitaxial layers can now be grown by MOVPE. Recently good quality epilayers have also been grown by MBE. Considerable work has been done on dislocations, strain, and critical thickness of GaN grown on different substrates. Splitting of valence band by crystal field and by spin-orbit interaction has been calculated and measured. The measured values agree with the calculated values. Effects of strain on the splitting of the valence band and on the optical properties have been studied in detail. Values of band offsets at the heterointerface between several pairs of different nitrides have been determined. Extensive work has been done on the optical and electrical properties. Near band-edge spectra have been measured over a wide range of temperatures. Free and bound exciton peaks have been resolved. Valence band structure has been determined using the PL spectra and compared with the theoretically calculated spectra. Strain and its effect on the optical properties of the III-nitride layers have been studied both theoretically and experimentally. Both n and p conductivity have been achieved. InGaN quantum wells with GaN and AlGaN barriers and cladding layers have been investigated. PL of the quantum wells is affected by confinement effects, band filling, quantum confined Stark effect, and strain. This work has led to the fabrication of advanced optoelectronic and electronic devices. The light-emitting decodes emitting in the blue and green regions of the spectrum have been commercialized. The work leading to these developments is reviewed in this article. The device processing methods and actual devices are not discussed. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)01803-X].