Japanese Journal of Applied Physics

Vol. 46, No. 35, 2007, pp. L820L822

JJAP Express Letter
#2007 The Japan Society of Applied Physics

Pure Blue Laser Diodes Based on Nonpolar m-Plane Gallium Nitride

with InGaN Waveguiding Layers
Kuniyoshi O KAMOTO
, Taketoshi T ANAKA, Masashi K UBOTA, and Hiroaki O HTA
Research and Development Headquarters, ROHM Co., Ltd., Kyoto 615-8585, Japan
(Received August 9, 2007; accepted August 16, 2007; published online September 7, 2007)

Blue laser diodes (LDs) based on m-plane gallium nitride were demonstrated by using m-plane GaN substrates. The lasing
wavelength and the threshold current under pulsed operation were 451.8 nm and 134 mA (22.3 kA/cm2 ), respectively. The
device structures consisted of InGaN-based multi-quantum wells, InGaN guiding layers, and Al-containing cladding layers.
The InGaN guiding layers play two roles; as appropriate optical waveguides for longer lasing wavelengths and for the
prevention of macroscopic cracks parallel to the c-plane. The latter is an indispensable technology in order to fabricate
nonpolar LDs for longer wavelengths beyond the blue region. [DOI: 10.1143/JJAP.46.L820]
KEYWORDS: nonpolar, m-plane, InGaN, laser diode, GaN bulk substrate

Wurtzite (Al,In,Ga)N alloys grown in nonpolar and semi- Pd/Au

polar orientations are suitable materials for the fabrication
(a) p-GaN contact
of green laser diodes (LDs), since the strained quantum wells p-AlGaN
cladding ZrO2
(QWs) do not suer from polarization-induced internal
elds, which reduce quantum eciency (
int ) and cause p-GaN or InGaN guiding p-AlGaN blocking
large blue-shift of the emission peak in c-plane QWs.15) InGaN MQW
n-GaN or InGaN guiding
Moreover, similar to the case for c-plane InGaN QWs,1,6,7)
the localized exciton emissions exhibit high values for
int n-AlGaN cladding [1100]
despite the presence of high concentrations of threading
dislocations (TDs) and stacking faults (SFs).610) However,
n-GaN [1120]
the presence of SFs can cause severe problems, i.e., dif-
[0001]
ferences in electroluminescence from position to position
which originate from variations in In-incorporation e- free-standing
ciency.812) Recently, acceptable device performance has m-GaN substrate
been demonstrated for semipolar (112
2) light emitting
diodes (LEDs),13) nonpolar m-plane LEDs,1416) and semi- Al/Ti/Au QWs
polar (101
1
) LEDs1719) on free-standing semipolar or non-
polar GaN substrates. In these cases, the main breakthrough Refractive index in
was the discrimination of TDs and SFs.14) Following this
(b) 455nm blue LD
discovery, both the group at University of California, Santa 405nm violet LD
Barbara and ourselves have reported the pulsed and CW
operation of m-plane InGaN-based violet LDs.2022) The 2.7
development of LDs on the semipolar plane has also been In 0.04Ga 0.96N
published.23) In this work, we present the rst demonstration
Refractive index

2.6 p-guiding n-guiding

of nonpolar m-plane LDs in the blue region and discuss the
GaN
roles of InGaN guiding layers, which represent a crucial
2.5
technology for devices that are designed to lase at longer
wavelengths.
The free-standing m-plane GaN substrates were sliced 2.4
from thick c-plane GaN substrates grown by hydride vapor Al 0.05Ga 0.95N
phase epitaxy.1416,2022) They exhibited smooth surface mor- Al 0.08Ga 0.92N n-cladding
2.3
phologies with monolayer atomic step structures. The miscut 400 450 500
angles toward both the h0001i and the h112
0i directions Wavelength (nm) p-cladding
were less than 0:3 . The LD structures were grown by
conventional low-pressure metal organic vapor phase epi-
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic cross-sectional view of the LDs with stripes parallel
taxy using high group-V to group-III supply ratios.14,20) A to the c-axis and (b) refractive index dispersion (ref. 24) of our LD
schematic drawing of the LD structure is shown in Fig. 1(a). structures.
It consisted of an n-type GaN layer, an n-type AlGaN
cladding layer, an n-type waveguiding layer, a two-period
InGaN multiple-QW (MQW), a p-type AlGaN electron- guiding layers, GaN or InGaN layers were applied. The
blocking layer, a p-type waveguiding layer, a p-type AlGaN refractive index dispersions24) of our LD structures are
cladding layer, and a p-type GaN contact layer. For the shown in Fig. 1(b). For the case of violet LDs, GaN guiding
layers and Al0:05 { 0:08 Ga0:95 { 0:92 N cladding layers were


E-mail address: Kuniyoshi.Okamoto@dsn.rohm.co.jp typically selected, where n (the dierence in refractive
L820
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 46, No. 35 (2007) Express Letter K. OKAMOTO et al.

(a) [0001] (b) will be published elsewhere). The value of  is dened as

I?  I== =I? I== , where I? and I== are the PL intensities
[1120] for E ? c and E == c, respectively. Hence, the elimination
[1100] of the leakage currents caused by macroscopic cracks is
50 m necessary for optimum performance.
To overcome this problem, InGaN was applied to the
Fig. 2. Nomarski optical micrographs of LD wafer using (a) GaN guiding guiding layers instead of GaN. The usage of InGaN material
and (b) InGaN guiding layers.
for the guiding layers enabled us to reduce the AlN molar
fraction in the cladding layers while keeping the same
optical connement. As shown in Fig. 1(b), a suciently
index between the guiding and the cladding layers) is greater high value for n can be obtained in the blue region by
than 0.05. As the lasing wavelength increases, the actual using In0:04 Ga0:96 N guiding and Al0:05 Ga0:95 N cladding
value of n decreases. Hence, higher Al-containing AlGaN layers. Replacing the GaN guiding layer with InGaN and
cladding layers are required in order to achieve equivalent reducing the Al molar fraction in the Al0:05 Ga0:95 N cladding
optical connement. layers allowed us to realize crack-free epitaxial wafers, as
A Nomarski optical micrograph of a blue LD wafer in shown in Fig. 2(b). The InGaN layers are considered to be
which the guiding layers and cladding layers were GaN and eective in relaxing the strain that is induced by the lattice
Al0:08 Ga0:92 N, respectively, is shown in Fig. 2(a). Several mismatch.
cracks were present perpendicular to the c-axis. This com- LD stripes were dened parallel to the c-axis by dry
bination of guiding and cladding layers followed the same etching and a conventional lift-o technique.20) The width
design as used for 405 nm violet LDs, where no macroscopic at the base of the ridged stripes was typically 1.5 4 mm.
cracks had been observed.20) For the cases where GaN was Sputtered ZrO2 was used for the insulating layer. After the
used as the guiding material, the maximum lasing wave- formation of the electrodes, approximately 400- or 600-mm-
length was limited to about 430 nm due to the onset of such long LD cavities were formed by cleaving the wafers. Then,
cracks. As shown, a higher InN molar fraction in the InGaN the laser facets were cleaved at a c-plane surface, as shown
MQW led to increased lattice mismatch with respect to the in Fig. 1(a).
AlGaN cladding layer, and resulted in the appearance of Representative light output powercurrent (LI) and
macroscopic cracks parallel to the c-plane. voltagecurrent (VI) curves for a blue LD including InGaN
As in the case of violet LDs, the stripe pattern for blue guiding layers are shown in Fig. 3(a). In this case, In0:04 -
LDs should be formed parallel to the c-axis (perpendicular to Ga0:96 N and Al0:05 Ga0:95 N layers were used as the guiding
the cracks) due to the polarization selection rule,20) since a layers and the cladding layers, respectively. The threshold
high polarization ratio   0:8 at 300 K was observed in current was 134 mA (22.3 kA/cm2 ) under pulsed operation
the region between 460 480 nm (detailed experimental data (duty ratio is 0.1% throughout the article). The lasing

Current density (kA/cm2 )

0 10 20 30
Optical output power (mW)

20 20
(a) 300K (b) 300K
Intensity (arb. units)

15 1.5m stripe 15 451.8nm

Voltage (V)

Vth=11.1V
10 10

5 5
Ith=134mA
0 0
0 50 100 150 200 440 450 460 470
Threshold current density (kA/cm2 )

Current (mA) Wavelength (nm)

50
(c) 300K (d) 300K
Intensity (arb.units)

40
30
20
GaN guiding

10 InGaN guiding
//
0
-40 -20 0 20 40 400 420 440 460
Angle () Wavelength (nm)

Fig. 3. (a) Typical LI and VI characteristics of LDs. (b) Laser emission spectra of LDs under pulsed operation. The resolution of the
monochrometer was approximately 0.2 nm. (c) Far-eld patterns under pulsed operation at 10 mW. (d) Threshold current density of
LDs using GaN guiding (squares) and InGaN guiding (triangles) as a function of lasing wavelength.
L821
Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 46, No. 35 (2007) Express Letter
emission spectrum is also shown in Fig. 3(b). The stimulated
emission peak and full width at half maximum were 451.8
and 0.6 nm, respectively. Far eld patterns are also presented
in Fig. 3(c). The beam divergence angles perpendicular and
parallel to the junction plane (? and == ) were 27.9 and
17.0 , respectively. These values are comparable to those of
c-plane or m-plane violet LDs.20) The results show a single-
mode near-eld-pattern (NFP) in transverse mode. Several
of the experimental results are summarized in Fig. 3(d). In
the case of GaN guiding, the maximum lasing wavelength
was about 430 nm. Above this wavelength, the usual IV
characteristics could not be obtained due to leakage currents
that occurred due to the macroscopic cracks that were
present. On the other hand, we have achieved LD operation
with wavelengths of over 450 nm under pulsed conditions.
The threshold currents of LDs incorporating InGaN guiding
were lower than those of LDs using GaN guiding. The lower
threshold currents are due to stronger optical connement in
the blue regions. In addition, owing to the nonpolar m-plane
InGaN, we can use thick InGaN guiding layers without the
degradation of the electrical properties caused by polar-
ization that would normally be the case for c-plane devices.
Further optimisation of the device structure will be carried
out to achieve lower threshold currents and CW operation.
To summarize, we have achieved the rst non-polar blue
LDs with lasing wavelengths of over 450 nm by improving
the device structure. The threshold current under pulsed
operation was 134 mA (22.3 kA/cm2 ) with a lasing wave-
length of 451.8 nm. The reported LDs had appropriate
optical waveguides for longer lasing wavelengths, and no
macroscopic cracks were present parallel to the c-plane due
to the application of InGaN for the guiding layers.
The m-plane GaN substrates were supplied by the
Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation.
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