III-nitride emitters and detectors for UV optoelectronic applications grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition

We report the current progress of our development of near-ultraviolet (NUV) III-nitride vertical-cavity LED emitters and avalanche photodetectors grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The III-N emitters are designed to be UV vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers operating at 369.5nm. We describe the development of the growth and processing of an air-gap/AlGaN distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) consisting of five-pairs of quarter-wavelength layers of Al0.12Ga0.88N and air-gap regions created by selective chemical etching. A 4-6λ cavity was employed in the laser structure. We also report on the electrical and optical emission characteristics of these microcavity emitters. The photodetectors are GaN- and AlGaN-based p-i-n avalanche photodiodes (APDs) designed for front-side illumination. We report on the electrical and optical detection characteristics of these photodetectors.