Identification of the nitrogen split interstitial (N-N)(N) in GaN

Nitrogen Complex-Driven Vacancy Cluster in Group-III Nitrides

A series of experiments have elucidated the primary defects in group-III nitride epilayers, identifying vacancy clusters due to cation migration at interfaces to mitigate strained lattice. While the occurrence of these defects is well-documented, the underlying electronic mechanisms driving vacancy agglomeration in nitrides and their alloys remain poorly understood. In this study, we uncovered a previously unreported ground state of two metal vacancies driven by the migration of kinetically unstable nitrogen atoms using an ab initio approach. Our findings reveal that the mixed covalent-ionic bond character of nitrides is a crucial factor in determining the stability of vacancy clusters. Notably, the relatively strong ionic character of AlN facilitates the formation of exceptionally stable vacancy clusters with a pyramidal nitrogen complex. In contrast, GaN, despite having similar covalent bonding strength, exhibits less stable vacancy clusters due to its weaker ionic character. Moreover, in InN, we observe the formation of molecular-like azide anion that creates a trimer metallic-like bond between indium dangling bonds, accompanied by vigorous indium migration. In the process, we newly identified the formation of a Schottky-Frenkel composite defect. We believe that these novel insights into the bond character and stability of vacancy clusters in nitrides provide a new understanding that could drive the design and optimization of nitride-based materials and electronic devices.

Highly efficient blue InGaN nanoscale light-emitting diodes

Indium gallium nitride (InGaN)-based micro-LEDs (μLEDs) are suitable for meeting ever-increasing demands for high-performance displays owing to their high efficiency, brightness and stability^1-5. However, μLEDs have a large problem in that the external quantum efficiency (EQE) decreases with the size reduction^6-9. Here we demonstrate a blue InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) nanorod-LED (nLED) with high EQE. To overcome the size-dependent EQE reduction problem^8,9, we studied the interaction between the GaN surface and the sidewall passivation layer through various analyses. Minimizing the point defects created during the passivation process is crucial to manufacturing high-performance nLEDs. Notably, the sol-gel method is advantageous for the passivation because SiO₂ nanoparticles are adsorbed on the GaN surface, thereby minimizing its atomic interactions. The fabricated nLEDs showed an EQE of 20.2 ± 0.6%, the highest EQE value ever reported for the LED in the nanoscale. This work opens the way for manufacturing self-emissive nLED displays that can become an enabling technology for next-generation displays.

Dynamics Studies of Nitrogen Interstitial in GaN from Ab Initio Calculations

Understanding the properties of defects is crucial to design higher performance semiconductor materials because they influence the electronic and optical properties significantly. Using ab initio calculations, the dynamics properties of nitrogen interstitial in GaN material, including the configuration, migration, and interaction with vacancy were systematically investigated in the present work. By introducing different sites of foreign nitrogen atom, the most stable configuration of nitrogen interstitial was calculated to show a threefold symmetry in each layer and different charge states were characterized, respectively. In the researches of migration, two migration paths, in-plane and out-of-plane, were considered. With regards to the in-plane migration, an intermediated rotation process was observed first time. Due to this rotation behavior, two different barriers were demonstrated to reveal that the migration is an anisotropic behavior. Additionally, charged nitrogen Frenkel pair was found to be a relatively stable defect complex and its well separation distance was about 3.9 Å. Part of our results are in good agreement with the experimental results, and our work provides underlying insights of the identification and dynamics of nitrogen interstitial in GaN material. This study of defects in GaN material is useful to establish a more complete theory and improve the performance of GaN-based devices.

Comparing LDA-1/2, HSE03, HSE06 and G₀W₀ approaches for band gap calculations of alloys

It has long been known that the local density approximation and the generalized gradient approximation do not furnish reliable band gaps, and one needs to go beyond these approximations to reliably describe these properties. Among alternatives are the use of hybrid functionals (HSE03 and HSE06 being popular), the GW approximation or the recently proposed LDA-1/2 method. In this work, we compare rigorously the performance of these four methods in describing the band gaps of alloys, employing the generalized quasi-chemical approach to treat the disorder of the alloy and to obtain judiciously the band gap for the entire compositional range. Zincblende InGaAs and InGaN were chosen as prototypes due to their importance in optoelectronic applications. The comparison between these four approaches was guided both by the agreement between the predicted band gap and the experimental one, and by the demanded computational effort (time and memory). We observed that the HSE06 method provided the most accurate results (in comparison with experiments), whereas, surprisingly, the LDA-1/2 method gave the best compromise between accuracy and computational resources. Due to its low computational cost and good accuracy, we decided to double the supercell used to describe the alloys, and employing LDA-1/2 we observed that the bowing parameter changed remarkably, only agreeing with the measured one for the larger supercell, where LDA-1/2 plays an important role.

Site preference of Mg acceptors and improvement of p-type doping efficiency in nitride alloys

We perform first-principles density functional calculations to investigate the effect of Al and In on the formation energy and acceptor level of Mg in group-III nitride alloys. Our calculations reveal a tendency for the Mg dopants to prefer to occupy the lattice sites surrounded with Al atoms, whereas hole carriers are generated in In- or Ga-rich sites. The separation of the Mg dopants and hole carriers is energetically more favourable than a random distribution of dopants, being attributed to the local bonding effect of weak In and strong Al potentials in alloys. As a consequence, the Mg acceptor level, which represents the activation energy of Mg, tends to decrease with increasing numbers of Al next-nearest neighbours, whereas it increases as the number of In next-nearest neighbours increases. Based on the results, we suggest that the incorporation of higher Al and lower In compositions will improve the p-type doping efficiency in quaternary alloys, in comparison with GaN or AlGaN ternary alloys with similar band gaps.