Currently the AlGaN-based ultraviolet (UV) solid-state lighting research suffers from numerous challenges. In particular, low internal quantum efficiency, low extraction efficiency, inefficient doping, large polarization fields, and high dislocation density epitaxy constitute bottlenecks in realizing high power devices. Despite the clear advantage of quantum-confinement nanostructure, it has not been widely utilized in AlGaN-based nanowires. Here we utilize the self-assembled nanowires (NWs) with embedding quantum-disks (Qdisks) to mitigate these issues, and achieve UV emission of 337 nm at 32 A/cm (80 mA in 0.5 × 0.5 mm device), a turn-on voltage of ∼5.5 V and droop-free behavior up to 120 A/cm of injection current. The device was grown on a titanium-coated n-type silicon substrate, to improve current injection and heat dissipation. A narrow linewidth of 11.7 nm in the electroluminescence spectrum and a strong wavefunctions overlap factor of 42% confirm strong quantum confinement within uniformly formed AlGaN/AlGaN Qdisks, verified using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The nitride-based UV nanowires light-emitting diodes (NWs-LEDs) grown on low cost and scalable metal/silicon template substrate, offers a scalable, environment friendly and low cost solution for numerous applications, such as solid-state lighting, spectroscopy, medical science and security.

The recent study of a wide range of layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) has created a new era for device design and applications. In particular, the concept of van der Waals epitaxy (vdWE) utilizing layered TMDCs has the potential to broaden the family of epitaxial growth techniques beyond the conventional methods. We report herein, for the first time, the monolithic high-power, droop-free, and wavelength tunable InGaN/GaN nanowire light-emitting diodes (NW-LEDs) on large-area MoS2 layers formed by sulfurizing entire Mo substrates. MoS2 serves as both a buffer layer for high-quality GaN nanowires growth and a sacrificial layer for epitaxy lift-off. The LEDs obtained on nitridated MoS2 via quasi vdWE show a low turn-on voltage of ∼2 V and light output power up to 1.5 mW emitting beyond the “green gap”, without an efficiency droop up to the current injection of 1 A (400 A cm−2), by virtue of high thermal and electrical conductivities of the metal substrates. The discovery of the nitride/layered TMDCs/metal heterostructure platform also ushers in the unparalleled opportunities of simultaneous high-quality nitrides growth for high-performance devices, ultralow-profile optoelectronics, energy harvesting, as well as substrate reusability for practical applications.

The growth of self-assembled, vertically oriented and uniform nanowires (NWs) has remained a challenge for efficient light-emitting devices. Here, we demonstrate dislocation-free AlGaN NWs with spontaneous coalescence, which are grown by plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy on an n-type doped silicon (100) substrate. A high density of NWs (filling factor > 95%) was achieved under optimized growth conditions, enabling device fabrication without planarization using ultraviolet (UV)-absorbing polymer materials. UV-B (280-320 nm) light-emitting diodes (LEDs), which emit at ~303 nm with a narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) (~20 nm) of the emission spectrum, are demonstrated using a large active region (“active region/NW length-ratio” ~ 50%) embedded with 15 stacks of AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN quantum-disks (Qdisks). To improve the carrier injection, a graded layer is introduced at the AlGaN/GaN interfaces on both p- and n-type regions. This work demonstrates a viable approach to easily fabricate ultra-thin, efficient UV optoelectronic devices on low-cost and scalable silicon substrates.

In this work, we demonstrated the direct growth of GaN nanowires on indium tin oxide (ITO)-coated fused silica substrate. The nanowires were grown catalyst-free using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (PA-MBE). The effect of growth condition on the morphology and quality of the nanowires is systematically investigated. Structural characterization indicates that the nanowires grow in the (0001) direction directly on top of the ITO layer perpendicular to the substrate plane. Optical characterization of the nanowires shows that yellow luminescence is absent from the nanowire's photoluminescence response, attributed to the low number of defects. Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) measurement on n-doped GaN nanowires shows good conductivity for individual nanowires, which confirms the potential of using this platform for novel device applications. By using a relatively low-temperature growth process, we were able to successfully grow high-quality single-crystal GaN material without the degradation of the underlying ITO layer.

Group-III nitrides and their alloys feature direct bandgaps covering a broad range of the electromagnetic spectrum, making them a promising material system for various applications, such as solid state lighting, chemical/biological sensing, water splitting, medical diagnostics, and communications. In recent years, the growth of strain and defect-free group-III nitride vertical nanowires has exploded as an area of research. These nanowires, grown on various unconventional substrates, such as silicon and different metals, demonstrate potential advantages over their planar counterparts, including wavelength tunability to the near infrared and reduced efficiency droop. The low-profile and low power consumption of such nanowires also make them viable candidates for emerging applications, such as the Internet of things and artificial intelligence. Herein, we present a comprehensive review on the recent achievements made in the field of III-nitride nanowires. We compare and discuss the growth conditions and mechanisms involved in fabricating these structures via metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and molecular beam epitaxy. How the unique optical, electrical, and thermal properties of these nanowires are correlated with their growth conditions on various unconventional substrates is discussed, along with their respective applications, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, photodetectors, and photoelectrodes. Finally, we detail the remaining obstacles and challenges to fully exploit the potential of III-nitride nanowires for such practical applications.

P-type doping in wide bandgap and new classes of ultra-wide bandgap materials has long been a scientific and engineering problem. The challenges arise from the large activation energy of dopants and high densities of dislocations in materials. We report here, a significantly enhanced p-type conduction using high-quality AlGaN nanowires. For the first time, the hole concentration in Mg-doped AlGaN nanowires is quantified. The incorporation of Mg into AlGaN was verified by correlation with photoluminescence and Raman measurements. The open-circuit potential measurements further confirmed the p-type conductivity; while Mott-Schottky experiments measured a hole concentration of 1.3×1019 cm-3. These results from photoelectrochemical measurements allow us to design prototype ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) incorporating the AlGaN quantum-disks-in-nanowire and optimized p-type AlGaN contact layer for UV-transparency. The ~335-nm LEDs exhibited a low turn-on voltage of 5 V with a series resistance of 32 Ω, due to the efficient p-type doping of the AlGaN nanowires. The bias-dependent Raman measurements further revealed the negligible self-heating of devices. This study provides an attractive solution to evaluate electrical properties of AlGaN, which is applicable to other wide bandgap nanostructures. Our results are expected to open doors to new applications for wide and ultra-wide bandgap materials.

Consumer electronics have increasingly relied on ultra-thin glass screen due to its transparency, scalability, and cost. In particular, display technology relies on integrating light-emitting diodes with display panel as a source for backlighting. In this study, we undertook the challenge of integrating light emitters onto amorphous quartz by demonstrating the direct growth and fabrication of a III-nitride nanowire-based light-emitting diode. The proof-of-concept device exhibits a low turn-on voltage of 2.6 V, on an amorphous quartz substrate. We achieved ~ 40% transparency across the visible wavelength while maintaining electrical conductivity by employing a TiN/Ti interlayer on quartz as a translucent conducting layer. The nanowire-on-quartz LED emits a broad linewidth spectrum of light centered at true yellow color (~ 590 nm), an important wavelength bridging the green-gap in solid-state lighting technology, with significantly less strain and dislocations compared to conventional planar quantum well nitride structures. Our endeavor highlighted the feasibility of fabricating III-nitride optoelectronic device on a scalable amorphous substrate through facile growth and fabrication steps. For practical demonstration, we demonstrated tunable correlated color temperature white light, leveraging on the broadly tunable nanowire spectral characteristics across red-amber-yellow color regime.

In this paper, we describe ultraviolet-A (UV-A) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) emitting at 325 nm based on a highly uniform structure of quantum-confined AlGaN quantum-disk nanowires (NWs). By incorporating a 20 nm TaN interlayer between a Ti pre-orienting layer and the silicon substrate, we eliminated the potential barrier for carrier injection and phonon transport, and inhibited the formation of interfacial silicide that led to device failure. Compared to previous reports on metal substrate, we achieved a 16 × reduction in root-mean-square (RMS) roughness, from 24 nm to 1.6 nm, for the samples with the Ti/TaN metal-bilayer, owing to the effective diffusion barrier characteristic of TaN. This was confirmed using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). We achieved a considerable increase in the injection current density (up to 90 A/cm2) compared to our previous studies, and an optical power of 1.9 μW for the 0.5 × 0.5 mm2 NWs-LED. This work provides a feasible pathway for both a reliable and stable UV-A device operation at elevated current injection, and eventually towards low-cost production of UV devices, leveraging on the scalability of silicon substrates.