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We report the gate leakage current and threshold voltage characteristics of Al0.3Ga0.7N/GaN heterojunction field effect transistor (HFET) with metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) grown β-Ga2O3 as a gate dielectric for the first time. In this study, GaN channel HFET and β-Ga2O3 passivated metal-oxide-semiconductor-HFET (MOS-HFET) structures were grown in MOCVD using N2 as carrier gas on a sapphire substrate. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to characterize the structural properties and surface morphology of the heterostructure. The electrical properties were analyzed using van der Pauw, Hall, and the mercury probe capacitance-voltage (C-V) measurement systems. The 2-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) carrier density for the heterostructure was found to be in the order of ~1013 cm-2. The threshold voltage shifted more towards the negative side for the MOSHFET. The high-low (Hi-Lo) frequency-based C-V method was used to calculate the interface charge density for the oxide-AlGaN interface and was found to be in the order of ~1012 cm2eV-1. A remarkable reduction in leakage current from 2.33×10-2 A/cm2 for HFET to 1.03×10-8 A/cm2 for MOSHFET was observed demonstrating the viability of MOCVD-grown Ga2O3 as a gate dielectric. 

Although AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have been studied extensively, their quantum efficiency and optical output power still remain extremely low compared to the InGaN-based visible color LEDs. Electron leakage has been identified as one of the most possible reasons for the low internal quantum efficiency (IQE) in AlGaN based UV LEDs. The integration of a p-doped AlGaN electron blocking layer (EBL) or/and increasing the conduction band barrier heights with prompt utilization of higher Al composition quantum barriers (QBs) in the LED could mitigate the electron leakage problem to an extent, but not completely. In this context, we introduce a promising approach to alleviate the electron overflow without using EBL by utilizing graded concave QBs instead of conventional QBs in AlGaN UV LEDs. Overall, the carrier transportation, confinement capability and radiative recombination are significantly improved. As a result, the IQE, and output power of the proposed concave QB LED were enhanced by ~25.4% and ~25.6% compared to the conventional LED for emission at ~254 nm, under 60 mA injection current. 

We present the most recent results of photoluminescence (PL) studies, classification of defects in GaN and their properties. In particular, the yellow luminescence band (labeled YL1) with a maximum at 2.17 eV in undoped GaN grown by most common techniques is unambiguously attributed to the isolated CN acceptor. From the zero-phonon line (ZPL) at 2.59 eV, the /0 level of this acceptor is found at 0.916 eV above the valence band. The PL also reveals the 0/+ level of the CN at 0.33 eV above the valence band, which is responsible for the blue band (BLC), with the ZPL at 3.17 eV. Another yellow band (YL2) with a maximum at 2.3 eV, observed only in GaN grown by the ammonothermal method, is attributed to the VGa3H complex. The nitrogen vacancy (VN) causes the green luminescence (GL2) band. The VN also forms complexes with acceptors such as Mg, Be, and Ca. These complexes are responsible for the red luminescence bands (the RL2 family) in high-resistivity GaN. The results from PL studies are compared with theoretical predictions. Uncertainties in the parameters of defects are discussed. 

Efficient high-power operation of light emitting diodes based on InGaN quantum wells (QWs) requires rapid interwell hole transport and low nonradiative recombination. The transport rate can be increased by replacing GaN barriers with that of InGaN. Introduction of InGaN barriers, however, increases the rate of the nonradiative recombination. In this work, we have attempted to reduce the negative impact of the nonradiative recombination by introducing thin GaN or AlGaN interlayers at the QW/barrier interfaces. The interlayers, indeed, reduce the nonradiative recombination rate and increase the internal quantum efficiency by about 10%. Furthermore, the interlayers do not substantially slow down the interwell hole transport; for 0.5 nm Al0.10Ga0.90N interlayers the transport rate has even been found to increase. Another positive feature of the interlayers is narrowing of the QW PL linewidth, which is attributed to smoother QW interfaces and reduced fluctuations of the QW width.