From high electron mobility GaN/AlGaN heterostructures to blue-violet InGaN laser diodes. Perspectives of MBE for nitride optoelectronics

The recent progress in growth of nitride based semiconductor structures made by plasma assisted MBE is presented. This technology is ammonia free and nitrogen for growth is activated in RF plasma source from nitrogen molecules. The new growth mechanism - adlayer enhanced lateral diffusion of adatoms on semiconductor surface is studied in plasma assisted MBE. This mechanism enables us to achieve high quality step-flow epitaxy at temperatures 600-750 degrees C, much lower than expected from classical estimates based on the melting point of GaN. We show that growth at low temperatures in metal rich (gallium or indium) regime, together with use of low dislocation bulk GaN substrates, results in high quality of (In, Al, Ga)N layers and sharp interfaces. We demonstrate record high mobility of two-dimensional electron gas at CaN/AlGaN interface (with mobility exceeding 100 000 cm(2)/(Vs) at 4.2 K and 2500 cm(2)/(V s) at 300 K) and report on first blue-violet InGaN multiquantum well laser diodes, operating in 407-422 nm wavelengths range. In this paper, we discuss also properties of strain compensated InAlN/InGaN multiquantum wells grown by plasma assisted MBE which are very attractive for telecommunication applications at 1.5 mu m wavelengths like electro-optical modulators or all-optical switches.